mm 




Hi 



H 



H 



KM 



m^tfrJWli 



HraraffiS 






r«B^'t 



■I 



■*WA 



^m 



m 



m 






i 



ORTHOPHONY, 



VOCAL CULTURE. 



A. MANUAL OF ELEMENTARY EXERCISES FOR THE 

CULTIVATION OF THE VOICE 

IN ELOCUTION. 



FOUNDED UPON DR. JAMES RUSH'S " PHILOSOPHY OF 

THE HUMAN VOICE," AND THE SYSTEM OF 

VOCAL GYMNASTICS INTRODUCED 

BY MR. JAMES E. MURDOCH. 



COMPILED BY 

WILLIAM RUSSELL, 

AUTHOR OF " LESSONS IN ENUNCIATION," ETC. 
REEDITED BY 

REV. FRANCIS T. RUSSELL, M. A. 

FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF ORATORY AT TRINITY AND HOBART COLLEGES. 

Seventy- Ninth Edition. 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK : 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY. 

1896. 






AUG »1 191? 



Copyright, 1882, 
By FRANCIS T. RUSSELL. 



All rights reserved. 



The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. 
Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Company. 



1 



oJ 



tin .:* su^ 

To 
JAMES E. MURDOCH, Esq. 

THE EMINENT ELOCUTIONIST AND TRAGEDIAN, 
AND FORMER ESTEEMED ASSOCIATE OF THE ORIGINAL COMPILER OF THIS VOLUME, 

STfje following Manual 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
BY 

THE EDITOR. 



PEEFACE. 



" The design of the exercises presented in this manual is 
to furnish the groundwork of practical elocution, and what- 
ever explanations are needed for the training of the organs 
and the cultivation of the voice. The system of instruction 
adopted in the present volume is founded on Br. Rush's 
treatise, ' The Philosophy of the Human Voice,' and is 
designed as a practical synopsis of that work, with the ad- 
dition of copious examples and exercises, selected for the 
purpose of facilitating the application of theory to practice. 
We hope, however, that the use of this manual will induce 
students and teachers to consult, for themselves, that in- 
valuable source of instruction, for an ample and complete 
statement of the theory of vocal culture, in connection with 
an exact analysis of the vocal functions. 

" The exercises embodied in the following pages are de- 
signed equally for the assistance of two classes of students, 
— at very different stages of progress in general education, 
but requiring, alike, the benefit of a thorough-going course 
of practice in elocution : young learners, whose habits of 
utterance are, as yet, forming ; and adults, whose profes- 
sional duties involve the exercise of public speaking. To 
the former, this manual will furnish the materials for a 
progressive cultivation and development of the vocal or-* 
gans for the useful purposes of education, and as a grace 



VI PREFACE. 

ful accomplishment. To the latter, it affords the means of 
correcting erroneous habit in the use of the organs of 
speech, and of acquiring the command of an easy, healthful, 
and effective mode of managing the voice in the act of 
reading or speaking in public." — From the original Preface 
in the year 1845. 

After forty years of use as a philosophical text-book, 
it has been deemed advisable to revise, and somewhat to 
rearrange, the subject-matter of " Orthophony." The work, 
as originally done, was so faultless and complete in all its 
parts, in arrangement and execution, that the editor has 
found it extremely difficult to alter it for the better. But 
he believes that the changes, which are numerous, are im- 
provements, and will adapt the work still better for use, as 
a text-book, in our institutions of learning, and for class or 
private study. The text throughout has been thoroughly 
revised, simplified, and condensed. Much of the discursive 
matter under each scientific head has been rejected, as 
wider study of the art has rendered unnecessary so much of 
explanation. Such treatment was essential forty years 
ago, when the philosophical and natural principles of the 
art were not recognized. 

The same high standard of literary excellence in the 
selections used as illustrations has been maintained, and by 
the introduction of new examples and a rearrangement of 
the old, it is hoped that new life has been infused into the 
well-known treatise, and that it can still be used by those 
who for years have found it the most helpful text-book 
apon the subject. 

It should be observed that it is not the purpose, in follow- 
ing the exercises under each division of a subject, to sug- 



PREFACE. Vll 

gest that all the examples should be used at any one lesson 
or drill. Care should be exercised to adapt the drill in 
every case to the strength and vocal condition of the 
student. 

Acknowledgments are due to Messrs. James Miller & 
Co. for their courtesy in granting the use of selections 
from Mrs. Browning's poems, and also to Messrs. Clark 
& Maynard for permission to copy a few prints of the 
vocal organs from Hutchison's " Physiology and Hygiene." 

F. T. R. 

August, 1882. 



Note. At the time of the proposed revision of the present 
volume, two years ago, Mr. Murdoch, supposing that the editor's 
work was to be somewhat different in character, forming a new 
and independent treatise (which was not designed), and having, 
moreover, in view the publication of his own book on Elocution, 
then in preparation, suggested that his name should be removed 
as far as possible from "Vocal Culture," lest the two books 
should be confounded the one with the other. Mr. Murdoch's 
valuable work, " Analytic Elocution," having recently appeared, 
this danger is now removed, and his permission having been 
gained to record once more the proper recognition of the admi- 
rable system of " Vocal Gymnastics," first taught by him on the 
basis of Dr. Rush's "Philosophy," his name appears again upon 
the title-page. 

December, 1884. 



CONTENTS. 



♦ 

Introductory Observations ...... jdii 

CHAPTER I. 

Respiration, or Exercises in Breathing • • • 1 

Additional Breathing Exercises • « . 3 

CHAPTER IX 

Orthoepy 5 

Tonic Elements . . . , . • • » 7 

Subtonic Elements • .10 

Atonic Elements .....••• 12 

Vowels and Diphthongs . . • • . • .14 
Vocal and Diphthongal Elements . . . ., • 15 

Consonantal Elements . - . . . • • .16 

Labial Sounds • • • 16 

Dental Sounds .18 

Palatic Sounds 20 

Aspirated Element ....... 20 

Nasal Sounds 20 

Lingual Sounds . . . . . • . .21 

Exercises in Enunciation ....... 23 

Words containing Tonic Elements .... 23 

"Words containing Subtonic Elements ... 28 

Words containing Atonic Elements .... 31 

Words containing Syllabic Combinations . . 32 

Exercise in Transition from one class of Elements to 

another . 35 

Exercise in Transition from one class of Organic Ac- 
tions to another 35 

Exercise in Difficult Combinations of Elements . 36 

Pronunciation ......... 40 

CHAPTER IIL 
Mode of Utterance 40 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Quality of Voice 42 

Whispering 42 

Pure Tone 45 

Examples of Pure Tone 49 

Subdued or Softened Force 49 

Moderate Force 52 

Sustained Force 66 

Orotund Quality ......... 67 

Effusive Orotund .68 

Expulsive Orotund 72 

Explosive Orotund 76 

Aspirated and Pectoral Quality . . . . . 78 

Effusive Utterance 80 

Expulsive Utterance ...... 82 

Explosive Utterance . . . . . .83 

CHAPTER V. 

Force 85 

Exercises in Force 88 

Suppressed Force 88 

Subdued Force 90 

Moderate Force 92 

Declamatory Force 95 

Impassioned Force . . . . . . .96 

Shouting and Calling . . . ... . 97 

Examples of Transition in Force 97 

CHAPTER VI. 

Stress ........... .101 

Radical Stress . . . . . . . . .102 

Median Stress 106 

Vanishing Stress . . . . . . , . .113 

Compound Stress . 116 

Thorough Stress 118 

Tremor, or Intermittent Stress . . . . 121 

CHAPTER VII. 

Melody .124 

Pitch 125 

Middle Pitch . 121 



CONTENTS. XI 

Low Pitch 128 

Very Low Pitch 130 

High Pitch . 131 

Very High Pitch .134 

Transition in Pitch 136 

The Phrases of Sentential Melody 141 

The Slide 145 

The Slide of Emotion . . . . ' . . .150 

The Distinctive Slide 154 

The Mechanical Slide 157 

The Wave, or Circumflex 159 

The Monotone 165 

Semi tonic or Chromatic Melody 171 

CHAPTER VIIL 

Time 176 

Quantity . . . . . . , . . . 176 

Exercises in Quantity 178 

Pauses 188 

Poetic and Oratorical Pauses 190 

Ehetorical Pauses 194 

Grammatical Pauses . . . . . . . 197 

Movement 197 

Examples of Slowest Movement . . . .199 

Examples of Slow Movement . . . . . 200 

Examples of Moderate Movement .... 201 

Examples of Animated or Lively Movement . . 202 

Examples of Brisk, Gay, or Quick Movement . . 203 

Examples of Rapid or Quickest Movement . . 205 

Transition in Movement 206 

Accent 208 

Syllabic Accent 208 

Rhythmical Accent 210 

Examples of Rhythm . 213 

Prosodial Accent, or Metre 217 

Iambic Metre 218 

Trochaic Metre 221 

Anapestic Metre 222 

Notation of Rhythmical and Prosodial Accent comhined 224 

CHAPTER IX. 

Emphasis and Expression ....... 227 

Impassioned Emphasis 228 



Xll CONTENTS. 

Unimpassioned Emphasis . . . t . . . . 229 

Examples 230 

Arbitrary Emphasis 235 

Expression 239 



Tables for Daily Exercise ...... 241 

Engraved Illustrations op the Vocal Organs . . 248 

Description of the Organs op Voice , . . . 253 

Miscellaneous Pieces for General Practice . . 262 

I. A Sea-voyage. Irving 262 

II. Death of Morris. Scott . . . . . 266 

III. Eulogy of President Garfield. Blaine . • . • . 268 

IV. Chatham's Rebuke of Lord Suffolk ... 270 
V. Patrick Henry's Speech in Favor of the War of In- 
dependence 271 

VI. Passing Away. Pierpont 272 

VII. Battle of Waterloo. Byron .... 274 

VIII. Satan rallying the Fallen Angels. Milton . . 276 

IX. Hymn to Mont Blanc. Coleridge . . . 278 

X. Rhyme of the Duchess May. E. B. Browning . 280 

XI. The Uses of Knowledge. Alison . . . 295 

XII. The Last Hours of Sir Walter Scott. Lockhart . 297 

XIH. Specimen of the Eloquence of John Adams. Webster 299 

XIV. Slavery opposed to Nature. Brougham . . . 301 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 



OETHOPHONY,i OR THE SYSTEMATIC CULTIVATION 
OF THE VOICE. 

The term orthophony is used to designate the art of cul- 
tivating the yoice, for the purposes of speech, reading, dec- 
lamation, recitation, or singing. This art, like all others, is 
founded on certain principles, the knowledge of which con- 
stitutes science. The principles of orthophony are derived 
from the sciences of anatomy and physiology, as regards the 
structure and action of the vocal organs, from the science 
of acoustics, as regards the formation of sound, in general, 
and from the science and art of music, as regards the regu- 
lation of vocal sound, in particular. 

Dr. Rush's exact and scientific analysis of elocution in 
his masterly treatise, " The Philosophy of the Human 
Voice," enables the teacher to carry elementary cultivation 
to an extent previously unattainable, and, even yet, too 
little known by those who have not paid special attention to 

1 The terms phonation (the act of producing vocal sound), and phon- 
ology (the science of voice) are in current use among physiologists. But 
the systematic cultivation of the vocal organs, on the elements of expres- 
sive utterance, is a branch of education for which our own language fur- 
nishes no appropriate designation. The compiler of this manual has 
ventured to adopt, as a term convenient for this purpose, the word 
orthophony, — a modification of the corresponding French word " or- 
thophonies used to designate the art of training the vocal organs. The 
etymology of this term, when traced to the original Greek words, — signi- 
fying cwrect and voice, — sanctions its use in elocution, on the same 
groand with that of " orthoepy," in grammar 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

the subject The actual benefits, however, arising from the 
practical applications of Dr. Rush's system are equally felt 
in the exactness of intelligence which it imparts, regarding 
all the expressive uses of the voice, and the force, freedom, 
and brilliancy of effect which it gives to the action of the 
vocal organs, whether in the utterance of expressive emo- 
tion, or of distinctive meaning addressed to the understand- 
ing, by the process of unimpassioned articulation. 

The methods of practical training, founded on the theory 
and the suggestions of Dr. Rush, are attended by a per- 
manent salutary influence of the highest value. They pro- 
duce a free and powerful exertion of the organs of respira- 
tion, a buoyancy of animal life, an exhilaration of spirits, 
and an energetic activity of the whole corporeal frame, — • 
all highly conducive to the well-being of the juvenile pupil, 
not less than to his attainment of a spirited, effective, and 
graceful elocution. The correspondent benefits conferred 
on adults, by a vigorous course of vocal gymnastics, are of 
perhaps still higher moment for the immediate purposes of 
life and usefulness. The sedentary habits of students and 
professional men render them liable not only to organic 
disability of utterance, and to injury of the lungs, but to 
numerous faults of habit, in their modes of exerting the 
organs of speech, — faults which impair or counteract the 
intended effect of all their efforts in the form of public 
reading or speaking. The daily practice of vocal exercises 
is the only effectual means of invigorating the organic 
system, or correcting faults of habit in utterance, and the 
surest means, at the same time, of fortifying the inward 
frame against the exhausting effects of professional exer- 
tion, when either pursued too long in succession or prac- 
tised at too distant intervals, — both serious evils, and 
nearly equal in the amount of injury which they occasion. 

The compiler of the present work could enumerate many 
cases in which voice and health, equally impaired, have 
been restored in a few months, or even weeks, of vocal 



INTRODUCTION. XV 

training, — and still more in which new and brilliant 
powers of expression have been elicited in individuals who 
have commenced practice with little hope of success and 
with little previous ground for such hope, — confirmed 
wrong habits of utterance, debilitated organs, and sinking 
health having all united their depressing and nearly ruin' 
©us influence on the whole man. 



ORTHOPHONY. 



CHAPTER I. 

RESPIRATION, OR EXERCISES IN BREATHING. 

Gymnastic and calisthenic exercises are invaluable aids to 
the culture and development of the voice, and should be sedu- 
lously practised, when opportunity renders them accessible. 
But even a slight degree of physical exercise, in any form 
adapted to the expansion of the chest, and to the freedom 
and force of the circulation, will serve to impart energy and 
glow to the muscular apparatus of voice, and clearness to its 
sound. 

There is, therefore, a great advantage in introducing some 
preliminary muscular actions, as an immediate prepara- 
tion for vocal exercise. These actions may be selected from 
the system of preparatory movements taught at gymnastic 
establishments ; or they may be made to consist in regulated 
walking, with a view to the acquisition of a firm, easy, and 
graceful carriage of the body, with appropriate motion of the 
arms and limbs, — in the systematic drill in gesture, in its 
various forms, for the purpose of obtaining a free, forcible, 
and effective use of the arm, as a natural accompaniment to 
speech, — or in the practice of attitude and action combined, 
in the most vivid style of lyric and dramatic recitation, so as 
to attain a perfect control over the whole corporeal frame, 
for the purposes of visible expression. 

Some preliminary exercises, such as the preceding, having 
been performed, and a sufficient period for rest and tranquil 
1 



Z ORTHOPHONY. 

breathing having elapsed, the next stage of preparatory- 
action may be as in the following directions : — 

1. Attitude of the Body, and Position of the Organs. 

Place yourself in a perfectly erect but easy posture ; the 
weight of the body resting on one foot ; the feet at a mod- 
erate distance, the one in advance of the other ; l the arms 
akimbo ; the fingers pressing on the abdominal muscles, in 
front, and the thumbs on the dorsal muscles, on each side 
of the spine ; the chest freely expanded and fully projected ; 
the shoulders held backward and downward, the head per- 
fectly vertical. 

2. Exercises in Deep Breathing. 

Having thus complied with the preliminary conditions of 
a free and unembarrassed action of the organs, draw in and 
give out the breath very fully, and very slowly, about a 
dozen times in succession. Let the breathing be deep and 
tranquil, but such as to cause the chest to rise fully and fall 
freely, and at every effort fill the lowest air cells of the 
lungs. 

3. Exercise in " Effusive " or Tranquil Breathing. 

Draw in a very full breath, and send it forth in a pro- 
longed sound of the letter h. In the act of inspiration, take 
in as much breath as you can contain. In that of expira- 
tion, retain all you can, and give out as little as possible, — 
merely sufficient to keep the sound of h audible. But keep 

i The habit of keeping the chest open and erect is indispensable to the 
production of a full, round tone of voice. But it is of still higher value, 
as one of the main sources of health, animation, and activity. 

The effect on the student of the preceding exercises in breathing is 
usually soon perceptible in an obvious enlargement of the chest, and habit- 
ually erect attitude, an enlivened style of movement, a great accession of 
general bodily vigor, an exhilarated state of feeling, and an augmented ac- 
tivity of mind. To persons whose habits are studious and sedentary, an& 
especially to females, the vigorous exercise of the organs of respiration 
and of voice is in every point of view an invaluable discipline. 



ADDITIONAL BREATHING EXERCISES. 3 

it going on as long as you can sustain it. In this style of 
respiration the breath merely effuses itself into the sur- 
rounding air. 

4. Exercise in " Expulsive " or Forcible Breathing. 

Draw in a very full breath, as before, and emit it, with a 
lively expulsive force, in the sound of h, but little prolonged, 
in the style of a moderate whispered cough. The breath 
in this style of expiration is projected into the air. Repeat 
this exercise, as directed in the statement preceding. 

5. Exercise in " Explosive " or Abrupt Breathing. 

Draw in the breath, as already directed, and emit it with 
a sudden and violent explosion, in a very brief sound of the 
letter h, — in the style of an abrupt and forcible, but whis- 
pered cough. The breath is, in this mode of expiration, 
thrown out with abrupt violence. Repeat this exercise as 
before directed. 

The above exercises ■ are sufficient for ordinary use, but 
the following are also of service in expanding and strength- 
ening the lungs. Caution should be observed in these, 
and indeed all forms of vocal training, that no discomfort 
be created by the exertion. Practice will soon render 
even the most difficult drill agreeable. But if forced be- 
yond the natural power of endurance, the breathing exer- 
cises will injure rather than develop the voice. 

ADDITIONAL BREATHING EXERCISES. 

Sighing. 

Sighing, as a natural effort, designed to relieve the lungs 
and accelerate the circulation, when depressing emotions or 
organic impediments cause a feeling as if the breath were 
pent up, consists in a sudden and large inspiration and 
a full, strong, effusive expiration." In vocal training it be- 
comes a most efficacious means of free, unembarrassed res- 



4 ORTHOPHONY. 

piration, and consequently of organic energy and of full 
voice. It should be repeated as the other exercises, and 
practiced through both the nostrils and the mouth ; the 
former being its gentler, the latter its more forcible form. 
It should be produced also in the tremulous style of inspi- 
ration, in which the sigh resembles a series of prolonged 
and subdued sobs. 

Sobbing. 

Sobbing, as an instinctive act, consists in a slightly con- 
vulsive, subdued, and whispering gasp, by which an instan- 
taneous supply of breath is obtained, when the stricture 
caused by the suffocating effect of grief would otherwise 
obstruct or suspend too long the function of inspiration. 
The practice of the sob facilitates . the habit of easy and 
rapid inspiration, and the expression of pathetic emotion. 

Gasping. 

Gasping is an organic act corresponding somewhat to 
sobbing, but much more violent, as belonging to the expres- 
sion of fierce emotions. Its effects as an exercise, in disci- 
plining the organs, are very powerful, and its use in vehe- 
ment expression in dramatic passages highly effective, and, 
indeed, indispensable to natural effect. 

Panting. 

Panting, as a natural act, in a highly excited state of cir- 
culation, whether caused by extreme muscular exertion or 
by intense emotion, consists in sudden and violent inspira- 
tion and expiration, the latter process predominating in force 
and sound. It is the only form of respiration practicable 
in high organic excitement. The practice of panting as an 
exercise imparts energy to the function of respiration, and 
vigor to the organs. Its effect is inseparable from the ex 
pression of ardor and intense earnestness in emotion. 



ORTHOEPY. 5 

CHAPTER II. 

ORTHOEPY. 

The term orthoepy (correct speech) comprehends all that 
part of elocution which pertains to the organic functions of 
articulation, and its audible result, which we term enuncia- 
tion. It will be a matter of convenience, at the same time, 
to take into view the subject of pronunciation, or, in other 
words, enunciation as modified by the rules of sound and 
accent which are drawn from the usage of a particular lan- 
guage. To pronounce a word properly, implies that we 
enunciate correctly all its syllables, articulate distinctly the 
sounds of its letters, and accent properly according to pre- 
vailing cultivated usage. 

We commence with the study of articulation, as a func- 
tion of the smaller organs of voice, including the larynx 
and the circumjacent parts, the mouth and its various por- 
tions and appurtenances. Our preceding observations ap- 
plied to the use of the larger organs, the cavity and mus- 
cles of the chest, etc., and referred to the act of respiration, 
preparatory to the production of vocal sound, whether in 
speech or in music. We are now occupied with the func- 
tions of speech. 

Propriety of pronunciation is justly regarded as an insep- 
arable result of cultivation and taste. We recognize an 
educated person by his mode of pronouncing words ; and 
we detect slovenliness in mental habit, or the absence of 
culture, with no less certainty, in the same way. What- 
ever thus holds true of pronunciation — a thing subject to 
the law of prevailing good custom merely, and liable, there- 
fore, to various interpretations in detail — is still more em- 
phatically applicable to distinct enunciation, the unfailing 
characteristic of correct intellectual habits, and the only 
means of exact and intelligible communication by speech. 



6 ORTHOPHONY. 

But a distinct enunciation is wholly dependent on the 
action of the organs, — on their positions and their move- 
ments, — on the force and precision of their execution. The 
breath having been converted into sound by the use of the 
component portions of the larynx, passes on to be modified 
or articulated into definite forms by the various parts of 
the mouth, and by the action of the tongue. 

The functions of the organs in articulation must obviously 
be determined by the character of the sound which in any 
case is to be executed. We shall find advantage, there- 
fore, in first considering the character of the component 
elementary sounds of our language, as a guide to the mode 
of exerting the organs in producing them. 

Dr. Rush, in his " Philosophy of the Voice," has adopted 
an arrangement of the elementary sounds of our language 
which differs from that of grammarians, and is founded on 
a more strict regard to the vocal properties of each ele- 
ment, a classification which is more convenient for the 
purposes of elocution, as well as more exact in relation to 
the facts of speech. Dr. Rush's arrangement we shall fol- 
low in this branch of our subject, as it is best adapted to 
the purposes of instruction. 

On a very few points of detail, however, we shall take 
the liberty to vary from Dr. Rush's system, where precision 
and accuracy of instruction seem to require such varia- 
tion. 

Dr. Rush's mode of classifying the elementary sounds of 
our language presents, first, those which he has denomi- 
nated " Tonic " elements, as possessing the largest capacity 
for prolongation of sound, and other modifications of tone. 
The following are the 



TONIC ELEMENTS. 







" TONIC 


ELEMENTS. 




I. Simple 


Sounds. 


9. Ai, as in Ai-r. 


1. 

2. 
3. 


A, 
A, 
A, 


as in A-ll. 

as in ^l-rm. 
as in A-n. 


10. U, as in #p. 

11. 0, as in O-r. 

12. 0, as in 0-n. 


4. 

5. 


E, 
00, 


as in JE-ve. 
as in Oo-ze. 


II. Compound Sounds. 




OO, 1 


as in Jj-oo-k. 


13. ^4, as in J.-le. 


6. 


E, 


as in JS-rr. 


14. /, as in I-ce. 


7. 


E, 


as in i£-nd. 


15. 0, as in 0-ld. 


8. 


I, 


as in I-n. 


16. Ou, as in 0w-r. 



The following elements of the same class are omitted by 
Dr. Rush. But they seem to be indispensable in teaching, 
which requires exact and close discriminations in order to 
obtain accuracy in practice. 

17. Oi, as in Oi-l. 18. U, as in Use, sounding 

long in the verb, short in the noun. 

(The student's attention should be directed to the fol- 
lowing observations, previous to practising the preceding 
sounds.) 

The a in such words as ale, Dr. Rush has very justly 
represented as consisting of two elements: 1st. The "rad- 
ical," or initial sound, with which the name of the letter a 
commences ; and 2d. The delicate " vanish," or final sound, 
with which, in full pronunciation, and in singing, it closes, 
— bordering on e as in eve, but barely perceptible to the 
ear. This element obviously differs, in this respect, from 
the acute e of the French language, which begins and ends 
with precisely the same form of sound and positions of the 
organs of speech ; while the English a, as in ale, requires a 
slight upward movement of the tongue, to close it with pro- 
priety ; and hence its " vanish " approaches to the sound 
of e. 

1 A shorter quantity, but the same in quality, with oo in ooze. 



8 ORTHOPHONY. 

The i of ice, in like manner, will, on attentive analysis, 
be found to consist of two simple elements : 1st, a as in 
at ; 2d, i as in in. Walker, in his system of orthoepy, de- 
fines this element as commencing with the a in father. But 
such breadth of sound is, in our own day, justly regarded as 
the mark of a drawling and rustic pronunciation, while good 
taste always shrinks from the too flat sound, which this ele- 
ment receives in the style of dialectic error in Scotland or 
Ireland, or in the style of fastidious and affected refinement, 
as if " ayee." 

The o of old, although not so commonly recognized as a 
compound element, will be found, on analysis, to belong 
properly to that class. Thus, if we observe closely the pro- 
nunciation of a native of continental Europe in speaking 
English, we shall find that the letter o in such words as old 
sounds a little too broad, and does not close properly. The 
foreign pronunciation lacks the delicate " vanish," approach- 
ing to oo in ooze, although not dwelling on that form of 
sound, but only, as it were, approximating to it ; as the let- 
ter a, in just and full utterance for public speaking, and for 
singing, closes with a slight approach to e in eve, but does 
not dwell on that element. 

That this compound form of the " tonic " o in old is a 
genuine tendency of the organs, in the pronunciation of our 
language, may be observed in the current fault of the utter- 
ance which characterizes the popular style of England, and 
in which, the vanish of this element is protruded to such an 
extent as to justify American caricaturists in representing 
it by the spelling of "powst rowd," for post road. 

The element on in our is obviously a compound of o as 
in done, — the same with u in up, — and a short or " vanish- 
ing " quantity of oo in ooze. The negligent style of popular 
error makes this element commence with a as in arm, or a 
in at ; and the local style of rustic pronunciation in New 
England makes it commence with e in end. 

Ai, as in the word air, though not recognized by Dr. 



TONIC ELEMENTS. 9 

Rush, nor by many other writers on elocution, as a separate 
element from a in ale, is obviously a distinct sound, approach- 
ing to that of e in end, but not forming so close a sound to 
the ear, nor executed by so much muscular pressure in the 
organs. The literal flat sound, however, of a in ale, if given 
in the class of words air, rare, care, etc., constitutes the 
peculiarity of local usage in Ireland, as contradistinguished 
from that of England. 

Popular usage in England and America inclines, no doubt, 
to the opposite extreme, and makes a in air too nearly like 
a prolonged sound of a as in an. In the southern regions 
of the United States, this sound is even rendered as broad 
as that of a in arm. But while good taste avoids such 
breadth of sound, as coarse and uncouth, it still preserves 
the peculiar form of this element, as differing both from a 
in ale, and e in end, and lying, as it were, between them. 

U in up seems to have been merged by Dr. Rush in the 
element e in err, which would imply that the latter word is 
pronounced " urr." But this is obviously the error of neg- 
ligent usage, whether in the United States or in England. 
In the latter country it is the characteristic local error of 
Wales. 

In the usage of New England and of Scotland there is, 
no doubt, a too prevalent tendency to pronounce err, earth, 
mercy, etc., with a sound too rigidly close, like that of e in 
merit; thus, "air" " airth," "maircy" But cultivated and 
correct pronunciation, while it avoids this preciseness, draws 
a clear though close distinction between the vowel sounds 
in urn and ear 71. 

Mr. Smart, in his " Practice of Elocution," describes the 
element in question with perfect exactness and just dis- 
crimination. 

" Er and ir are pronounced by unpolished speakers just 
like ur, as indeed, in some common words, such as her, sir, 
etc., they are pronounced, even by the most cultivated ; but 
in words of less common occurrence there is a medium be- 



10 ORTHOPHONY. 

tween ur and air which elegant usage has established as the 
just utterance of e and i joined to the smooth r" 1 

in or and o in on are apparently considered by Dr. 
Rush and by Walker as modifications of a in all. Admit- 
ting, however, the identity of quality in these elements, — 
their obvious difference in quantity, and in the position and 
pressure of the muscles by which, as sounds, they are formed, 
together with the precision and correctness of articulation, 
demand a separate place for them in elementary exercises 
designed for the purposes of culture, which always implies a 
definite, exact, and distinctive formation of sounds. 

Oi in oil, though omitted in the scheme of Dr. Rush, are 
evidently entitled to a distinct place in the classification of 
the elements of our language, on the same ground on which 
a separate designation is assigned to ou in our. 

This compound element oi is formed by commencing 
with the o in on, and terminating with the i in in. Popular 
and negligent usage inclines to two errors in this diphthong : 
1st, that of commencing with o in own instead of o in on ; 
2d, that of terminating with a short sound of a as in ale, 
instead of i in in. The appropriate sounds are as mentioned 
above. 

The compound element u as in use, although obviously 
formed of a short quantity of e in eve and of oo in ooze, is 
entitled to a place in the classification of the elements of 
our language, not merely as being a sound represented by a 
distinct character, as in the name of the letter u, but as con- 
stituting a peculiar diphthongal element. 

" SUBTONIC " ELEMENTS. 

These elements are so denominated by Dr. Rush " from 
their inferiority to the * tonics,' in all the emphatic and ele- 
gant purposes of speech, while they admit of being ' into- 
nated,' or carried ' concretely' (continuously) through the 
intervals of pitch." 

i The Practice of Elocution. By B. H. Smart. London, 1820. 



SUBTONIC ELEMENTS. 11 



1. L, 


as in L-ull. 1 




9. £, 


as in 


G^g. 


2. M, 


as in JS^ai-m. 




io. r, 


as in 


V-al-ve. 


3. jsr, 


as in N u-n. 




11. z, 


as in 


Z-one. 


4. R, 


as in i?-ap. 




12. ^, 


as in 


A-z-ure 


5. R, 


as in Fa-r. 2 




13. T, 


as in 


T-e. 


6. iv>, 


as in Si-ng. 




14. JF, 


as in 


TT-oe. 


7. i?, 


as in B-a,-be. 




15. 2 7 ^ 


as in 


TR-en. 


8. A 


as in D-i-d. 












Compound of 8 and 12 


. 






16. 


e/^ as 


in ^oy. 







The first six of the " subtonic " elements, I, m, n, r 
(hard), r (soft), and ng, have an unmixed " vocality " 
throughout : the seventh, eighth, and ninth, b, d, g, have a 
" vocality," terminating in a sudden and explosive force of 
sound: the remaining " subtonics," v, z, zh,y, w, th,j, have 
an " aspiration " (whispering sound of the breath) joined 
with their vocality. 

The fourth of these elements — ras in rap — differs from 
the fifth, — r as in far, — in having a harder and clearer 
sound, executed by a forcible but brief vibration of the tip 
of the tongue against the first projecting ridge of the inte- 
rior gum, immediately over the upper teeth ; while the lat- 
ter has a soft murmuring sound, caused by a slight vibration 
of the whole fore part of the tongue, directed towards the 
middle part of the roof of the mouth. 

The common errors of careless usage substitute the 
" soft " for the " bard " r, and omit the " soft " r entirely ; 
thus, "fdh " for far. Another class of errors consists in 
rolling, or unduly prolonging the sound of the " hard " r, 
and substituting the hard for the " soft " sound. 

1 In arranging the "subtonics," words have, in as many cases as prac- 
ticable, been selected for examples which contain a repetition of the ele- 
ment under consideration. The design of this slight deviation from Dr. 
Bush is to present each element as impressively as possible to the ear. 

2 Added to Dr. Rush's arrangement, for the reasons mentioned in subse- 
|uent observations on this element See last paragraph of this page. 



12 ORTHOPHONY. 

The greater prolongation of sound, which takes place in 
the average of singing notes, or in impassioned recitation, 
renders a slight comparative " roll " of the " hard " r un- 
avoidable, at the beginning of a word. But it is a gross 
error of taste to prolong this sound, in the style of foreign 
accent, as in French and Italian pronunciation ; or to sub- 
stitute the rough sound of the " hard " r for the delicate 
murmur of the " soft " r. 

The "subtonic" elements numbered 13 and 14 — y as 
in ye, and w as in woe — are, it may be remarked, not 
properly separate elements from e in eve and oo in ooze, 
but only extremely short " quantities " of the same " qual- 
ities " of vowel sound which are exhibited in these words. 
They require, however, a closer position of the organs 
for their execution ; and hence, for the purposes of prac- 
tical instruction, they may be advantageously studied as dis- 
tinct elementary sounds. 

" ATONIC " ELEMENTS. 

These elements are thus designated by Dr. Rush from 
their want of « tonic " property, — " their limited power of 
variation in pitch." " They are all properly 'aspirations,' 
and have not the sort of sound called ' vocality.' They are 
produced by a current of the whispering breath, through 
certain positions of parts, in the internal and external 
mouth." 

5. G " soft," and S, as in 



1. P, as in P-i-pe. 

2. T, as in ^-en-*. 

3. G, " hard," and K, as 

in G-&-ke. 

4. F, as in F-i-fe. 

Gompound of 2 and 8. 
9. Gh, as in Gh-uv-ch. 1 
1 Wh, which Dr. Rush has recognized as a distinct element, are but ap. 
parently such. They differ in no respect from the separate elements, w and 



C-ea-se. 

6. H, as in Re. 

7. Th, as in Th-m. 

8. Sh, as in Push. 



ATONIC ELEMENTS. 



13 



To some persons the foregoing analysis may seem unnec- 
essarily minute. But exactness in articulation cannot exist 
without close discrimination and careful analysis. Many of 
the worst errors in -the enunciation of words are owing to 
slight oversights of the true sound of a letter. Without 
strict attention to details, there can, in this particular, be no 
security for accurate execution. The very common error, 
for example, of reading or singing the word faith as if it 
were written "fai-eeth," is merely an act of negligence re- 
garding the " vanish," or final portion of sound, in the diph- 
thong at, which — although it is unavoidably analyzed by 
the voice, in the utterance of singing, to a greater extent 
than in that of reading — should never be dissected in 
the unnatural style which has just been mentioned. 

We have omitted, as will have been observed, that part 
of Dr. Rush's analysis which presents the " tonic " ele- 
ments a as in awe (identical with a in all), a in arm, and 
a in an, as diphthongal. Correct reading and appropriate 
singing alike forbid the " vanish " of these sounds to be 
rendered apparent to the ear. It is one of the acknowl- 
edged improprieties of enunciation which permits the word 
awe to terminate in any form approaching — even in the 
most distant degree — the negligent style of " awer." 

Let it be admitted that the " vanish," or final portion of 
the sound, in such elements, is but an unavoidable, acciden- 
tal " vocule," inseparably attached to the " radical " or initial 
sound, when we utter it by itself ; and it becomes, from its 
very nature, a thing which judgment and taste would alike 
require to be sunk out of notice to the ear, in the enuncia- 
tion of syllables or words. 

h, only that, in the modem orthography of words, they are inverted, a-« 
to their order. The ancient orthography of the language placed them a n 
they stand in orthoepy. Ew ; thus Hioeat, Hwen, etc. The sound is pro- 
duced by placing the lips in position for w and enunciating h at the same 
time. 



14 ORTHOPHONY. 

The preceding arrangement of the elementary sounds of 
the language, as presented by Dr. Rush, exhibits them in a 
manner very clear and distinct, as results of organic action, 
— or as sounds formed by the voice. But to ascertain their 
character with perfect accuracy of knowledge, for the pur- 
poses of vocal practice and culture, it becomes important to 
examine them closely, in connection with the exact position 
and movement of the organs, during the process of execu- 
tion. 

Classified, in this light, the audible elements of our lan- 
guage may be conveniently designated by the terms in use 
previous to Dr. Rush's arrangement. We will commence 
with the 

VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS. 

These elements, generally, are formed by the act of " ex- 
piration" modified into vocality by the larynx, and the 
adjoining organs, aided by the tongue, the palate, the lips, 
etc., which give definite and distinctive character to the 
sounds of the voice, as rudiments of speech. 

The enunciation of vowels and diphthongs demands at- 
tention principally to the free and expansive opening of the 
mouth, together with a strict attention to the action of the 
particular organ or organs by which each element receives 
its peculiar character as a definite sound. Much attention 
in the execution of these sounds is required to the action 
of the organs at the moment of commencing and at that of 
closing each sound. The sound of the voice in the utter- 
ance of the first audible portion of articulate sounds, Dr. 
Rush has termed the " radical " (initial) movement ; the 
sound uttered in the concluding portion of an articulatiou 
he has termed the " vanishing " (final) movement. Each 
of these points of articulate sound demands the closest dis- 
crimination, as regards both the voice and the motion or 
action of the organs. If the latter is not exact, the former 
will be more or less incorrect or vague, confused, and in- 
definite. The " radical " movement always demands clear. 



VOCAL AND DIPHTHONGAL ELEMENTS. 15 

ness, force, precision, and spirit in the execution ; the 
"vanish" requires nice and delicate finish, perfect exact- 
ness, but no undue marking or prominence. It should 
resemble, in its effect on the ear, that of a light but definite 
touch on the piano. 

"In just articulation, the words are hot to be hurried 
over, nor precipitated, syllable over syllable ; nor, as it 
were, melted together into a mass of confusion : they should 
be neither abridged, nor prolonged, nor swallowed, nor 
forced, and — if I may so express myself — shot from the 
mouth ; they should not be trailed nor drawled, nor let slip 
out carelessly, so as to drop unfinished. They are to be 
delivered out from the lips, as beautiful coins newly issued 
from the mint, deeply and accurately impressed, perfectly 
finished, neatly struck by the proper organs, distinct, sharp, 
in due succession, and of due weight." * 

The precision and force of the " radical " portion of a 
sound are gained by deep inspiration and a preliminary 
rallying, or gathering of impulse on the organs, — some- 
what as we brace the muscles before the exercise of jump- 
ing or diving, — and then causing an instantaneous explo- 
sion of the accumulated and compacted breath, iu the form of 
clear, cutting sound. In practising the following elements, 
this explosive, radical movement should be carried up from 
the slightest style of a suppressed cough to the most violent 
exertion, or the loudest style of coughing. The preliminary 
practice of a repeated actual cough is the best preparatory 
discipline for the species of organic action which constitutes 
the " radical " portion of any articulate sound. 

VOCAL AND DIPHTHONGAL ELEMENTS, 

corresponding to the "tonics" of Dr. Rush, and executed 
principally by the action of the larynx, with the mouth mors 
or less open : — 

1 Austin's Chironomia, pp. 38, 39. 



16 





ORTHOPHONY. 


I. Simple Sounds 




11. O-Y. 


1. .4-11. 




12. O-n. 


2. i-rm. 






3. ^-n. 




II. Compound Sounds. 


4. B-ve. 




13. .4-le (original element 


5. OO-ze, 




and 4). 


L-oo-k. 




14. 7-ce (3 and 4). 


6. ^-rr. 




15. O-ld (original element 


7. ^-nd. 




and 5). 


8. 7-n. 




16. Ou-r (10 and 5). 


9. ^-r. 




17. Oi-1 (12 and 8). 


10. £7-p. 




18. Use (4 and 5). 



CONSONANTAL ELEMENTS, 

corresponding to the " subtonic " and " atonic " sounds in 
the classification of Dr. Rush : — 

I. Labial Sounds. 
These are — in consonance with their designation — 
formed by the action of the lips. They may be enumerated 
as follows : — 

1. B-&rbe. 

2. P-i-pe. 

3. M-Sii-m. 



4. W-oe. 

5. V-sd-ve. 

6. F-i-fe. 



The " subtonic " b is formed by a firm compression of the 
lips, which arrests the escape of the breath, and causes, by 
this occlusion of the mouth, a murmuring resonance of the 
voice in the cavity of the chest and in the interior of the 
head and mouth. The pressure of the lips, in the formation 
of this sound, is increased to a maximum, or chief point, at 
which. the lips are suddenly opened, and a slight explosive 
effect produced, which consummates the character of the 
sound, and causes a " vocule," or slight and obscure vowel 
sound, resembling e in err, to follow the effort of the organs. 

1 This and the following element being formed by means both of the lower 
lip and the upper teeth, are, on this account, sometimes called "labialr 
dentals." 



ARTICULATION. 17 

♦ 
The " atonic " p is produced by an intense compression 

of the lips, which prevents the possibility of any audible 
sound till the forcible " aspirated," or whispering, explosion, 
following the maximum of the pressure, is heard, accompa- 
nied by the same " vocule " which attends the sound of b, 
but in p is only an aspiration, or whisper. 

The precision of these two elements of speech is de- 
pendent wholly on the full force of the labial compression 
and the intensity of the following explosion by which they 
are produced. In impassioned utterance, the force of the 
organic action, in the articulation of these sounds, must be 
carried to the utmost degree, and executed with instanta- 
neous precision and the most vivid effect. 

The " subtonic " m is articulated by a very gentle com- 
pression of the lips, attended by a murmur in the head and 
chest, resembling somewhat that which forms the character 
of the " subtonic " b, but differing from it in the sound, be- 
ing accompanied by a free, steady, equable " expiration " 
through the nostrils. In extremely impassioned utterance, 
this gentle element is made to assume the character of in- 
tensity by increasing the force of the labial compression to 
a maximum, and exploding the sound in a manner similar 
to that of b. This element is not followed, as b or p, by a 
" vocule ; " its own distinctive character of sound, through- 
out, being very nearly of the " tonic," or purely vocal nat- 
ure. 

The " subtonic " element v), as in woe, is formed by 
rounding the lips, as in articulating oo in ooze, but slightly 
compressing them, and holding them closer to the teeth ; a 
brief vocal murmur is formed by the breath, as modified 
by the larynx, escaping through this partial opening of 
the lips, and at the same time, in a very slight degree, 
through the nostrils. This sound has not, from its nature, 
much independent energy ; neither does it admit of pro- 
longation. But it becomes forcible and impassioned, to 
some extent, by increasing the pressure of the lips, and ex- 
2 



18 ORTHOPHONY. 

ploding the sound, somewhat in the manner of m and 6, 
when rendered intense. 

The " subtonic " v is articulated by the sound of the 
voice being modified by bringing the upper front teeth close 
upon the ridge of the under lip, and at the same time 
slightly raising the upper lip so as to prevent its interfering 
with the contact of the upper front teeth and the lower lip. 
A murmuring resonance, bordering on aspiration, is thus 
produced in the head and chest, by the partial escape of 
breath between the teeth and the lip. This element, as 
mentioned before, has, on this account, been sometimes de- 
nominated " labio-dental," from its dependence on both 
these organs. 

The " atonic " f is executed as v, with the difference only 
arising from a closer compression of the teeth and the lip, a 
more forcible expulsion of the breath, and an aspirated or 
whispering character in the sound. This element, also, is 
sometimes denominated " labio-dental," being formed as the 
preceding. 

II. " Dental " Sounds. 

These are all modified, as their name imports, by the aid 
of the teeth. But, like many other articulate sounds, they 
are founded on and imply an action of the tongue, although 
this circumstance is not indicated in the designation of such 
elements. 



1. D-i-d. 

2. T-en-t. 

3. 7%-in. 

4. TH-me. 

Compound of 1 and 5. 
9. J-oj. 



5. A-z-ure. 

6. Vu-sh. 

7. C-ea-se. 

8. Z-one. 

Compound of 2 and 6. 
10. Ch-ur-ch. 



The " subtonic " d is articulated by a partial vocal mur. 
mur, modified by pressing the tip of the tongue with great 
energy against the interior ridge of gum, immediately over 



ARTICULATION. 19 

the upper front teeth. This pressure is but an instantane- 
ous effort ; yet it evidently comes to a maximum just before 
the explosion, from which it takes its peculiar character, is 
executed. This explosion necessarily produces the " vo- 
cule " e as in err. 

The " atonic " t is executed in a similar manner, except- 
ing the absence of vocal murmur, an intense percussive 
pressure of the tongue, and an aspirated explosion, which 
takes place in the act of withdrawing the tongue from the 
gum. 

The " atonic " th, as in thin, is executed by a forcible 
" aspiration," modified by a slight horizontal parting of the 
lips and a forcible pressure of the end of the tongue against 
the upper front teeth. 

The " subtonic " TH, as in thine, is executed by a simi- 
lar position of the organs, but a vocalized emission of the 
breath forming a gentle resonance. 

The " subtonic " z, as in azure, is formed by a partially 
vocal sound, modified by gently raising the whole fore part 
of the tongue towards the roof of the mouth, and allowing 
the breath to escape between it and the teeth. 

The " atonic " sh is formed in a similar manner, as re- 
gards the position of the organs, but with more pressure, 
and by means of " aspiration," not " vocality," in the emis- 
sion of the breath. 

The " atonic " sound of s, or the soft sound of c, as in the 
word cease, is articulated by pressing, with intense force, the 
tip of the tongue against the interior gum, immediately over 
the front teeth. Through the extremely small aperture thus 
formed, aided by the horizontal parting of the lips and the 
cutting effect of the edges of the teeth, the sibilation, or 
hiss, is formed, which gives the peculiar character of this 
element. 

The " subtonic " z, as in zone, is formed by nearly the 
same position of the organs as the preceding element, but 
with very slight pressure, and by means of " vocalized," not 
" aspirated," sound. 



20 ORTHOPHONY. 



III. " Palatic " Sounds. 

These are so termed from their depending on the palatt 
for their distinctive character. They are enumerated as fol- 
lows : — 

1. G " hard," and K, as in C-a-he ; 2. G, as in G-SL-g ; 
3. Y, as in T-e. 

The " atonic " c " hard," or k, is executed by opening the 
mouth, retracting and curving the tongue with great force, 
and exploding an aspiration against the palate. 

The " subtonic " g, as in gag, is formed by similar move- 
ments and positions of the organs, but less forcible, and by 
means of " vocality " instead of " aspiration." 

The " subtonic "# is articulated by a similar process, still 
less forcible, and by means of " expulsion," not " explosion," 
as regards the character of the function and the sound. 

IV. "Aspirated " Element. 
H, as in ff-e. 

This sound is formed by a forcible emission of the 
breath, in the style of a whisper, and a moderate opening 
of all the organs of speech. 

V. " Nasal " Sounds. 

1. N, as in N-u-n ; 2. Ng, as in Si-ng ; or N, as in 
I-rc-k. 

The " subtonic " n is articulated by a vocalized breathing 
through the nose, the lips parted freely, and the end of 
the tongue pressing vigorously against the interior ridge of 
gum immediately above the upper front teeth. 

The (t subtonic " ng is formed by a vocalized breathing, 
directed against the nasal passage and the back part of the 
veil of the palate, and by a retracted and elevated position 
of the lower part of the tongue, which partly shuts th« 



ARTICULATION. 21 

nasal passage, and causes it, at the same moment, to become 
resonant. 

VI. " Lingual " Sounds. 

These elements are so called from their special depend- 
ence on the action of the tongue. They are the following*. 

1. L, as in L-u-ll ; 2. R, as in i?-ap ; 3. R, as in F-a-r. 

These are all " subtonic " elements. 

The first is formed by a moderate opening of the mouth, 
and the utterance of a vocalized sound, modified by raising 
the tongue towards the roof of the mouth, and pressing the 
end of it very gently against the interior ridge of gum 
immediately above the upper front teeth. 

The " subtonic " r, as in rap, is an element formed by 
vivid and energetic vibration of the tip of the tongue 
against the interior ridge of gum immediately over the up- 
per front teeth, forming a partially vocalized sound, clear 
and forcible, but very brief. It should never extend to a 
prolonged trill, or roll. This element is sometimes desig- 
nated as " initial " r, from its occurring at or near the begin- 
ning of words and syllables ; and sometimes " hard," or 
" rough," r, from its comparative force, as contrasted with r 
at the end of a word, which is always soft in sound. This 
element follows, but never precedes, a consonant ; thus, pray, 
brass, crape, green, dread, tread, scream, spread, etc. 

The " subtonic " r, as in far, is a softer sound, of longer 
duration, modified by a slight and gentle vibration of the 
whole fore part of the tongue, retracted, and rising towards 
the roof of the mouth, but not actually touching it. The 
just observance of the true character of this and the preced- 
ing element is, as was mentioned before, a point of great mo- 
ment in enunciation, and decides its style, as regards taste 
and culture. The designation of " soft," or " smooth," r is 
sometimes given to the " final " r, as it is a more delicate 
and liquid sound than the " hard," or " initial," r. This 
element occurs at the end of words, and before, but never 



22 ORTHOPHONY. 

after, a consonant; t\ms,war, star, fair, ire, ear, oar, farm, 
barn, card, harp, part, mercy, servant, person, etc. 

Note. — It is one of the great inconveniences of our lan- 
guage, that we have so few letters or characters by which 
to designate its sounds ; and it is not less a defect in it, that 
we have the same element sometimes represented by a great 
variety of letters, and the combination of letters. Thus, the 
element a, in ale, is heard also in aid, lay, weigh, survey, etc. 

A, in arm, is heard, also, in aunt. 

A, in all, is heard in awe, laud, etc. 

A, in what, was, wash, etc., is used to represent the same 
sound with o, as in on, or not. 

A, as in rare, is heard, also, in air, prayer, etc. 

E, as in eve, occurs, also, in the sound of ee in eel ; ea, in 
eat; ie, in field; ei, in seize. 

E, in end, occurs in the form of ea in head. 

E, in err, is the same sound which occurs in heard, and in 
■firm. 

Y, except its peculiar sound in ye, is but a repetition of i, 
long or short ; thus, rhyme, hymn, etc. 

0, in old, is repeated in oak, course, own, etc. 

Oo, in ooze, and oo, in foot, recur in the sounds of o in 
move ; u, in true ; o, in wolf ; u, in pull; ui, in fruit, etc. 

The diphthongal sound oi, as in oil, is heard, always, in 
oy. The sound of u, in use, occurs also in the form of iew 
in view ; eau, in beauty. 

The diphthong ou, in our, is repeated in the sound of ow 
in down, etc. 

F, as a sound, recurs in the form of ph and gh ; as in 
phrase, laugh, etc. 

J, and g " soft," are, on the other hand, but combinations 
of the sounds of d, and of z as in azure. 

Ch, in church, are but repetitions of the sound of t and sh. 

The sound of sh is found, also, in the words nation, gra- 
cious, ocean, etc. 

G " soft " is identical with *. 



ENUNCIATION OF WORDS. 23 

S is, in multitudes of instances, but a repetition of z, as, 
for example, in houses, diseases, etc. 

The sound of k is repeated in the form of c " hard ; " ch, 
as in chorus ; and q, as in queen, 

N, in ink, is identical with ng. 

X is but a repetition, in sound, of Jcs, gz, z, or hsh , thus, 
ex, example, Xerxes, Alexia, etc. 

It is unnecessary, however, to enlarge on these inconsis- 
tencies in the forms of our language. It is sufficient, per- 
haps, for our present purpose, to suggest the fact, that the 
orthography of words may sometimes afford no guidance to 
orthoepy, but, rather, may apparently mislead. The ear 
should, in all cases, be trained to the utmost exactness and 
precision, in detecting and seizing the true element of sound, 
independently of the form or combination of letters, by 
which it may be represented. 

WORDS 

to be practised in the same style as the exercises on sylla- 
bles, each component element kept perfectly clear and dis- 
tinct : — 

I. Tonic Elements. — Simple Sounds. 

One error, often made in the following class of words, is 
to pronounce them nearly as if written oall, etc. Some- 
times we hear the coarse error of dividing the sound of a, 
in such words, into two parts : thus, O-ull, io-ull, etc. To a 
cultivated ear, this sound is peculiarly displeasing, as asso- 
ciated with low and slovenly habit. 

1. A, as in -4-11. 
all war law awful water 

2. A, as in A-rm. 

The two current errors in this class of sounds are, 1st, as 
in the local usage of New England, flattening it down to a 
in an ; 2d, as in the custom of the Middle States, making it 



24 ORTHOPHONY. 

as broad as a in all. The former style causes the pronunci- 
ation of "farm," "part," "father;" the latter, that of 
" fawrm," " pawrt," " farther." 

harm bar mart balm daunt 

3. A, as in A-n. 

Common errors: 1st, a flattened down to e in end, 
nearly ; thus, " dence," " pess," the local usage of the 
Middle States ; 2d, a made as broad as a in arm ; thus, 
"dance" (as if darnce), "pass," the customary fault of 
New England. 

add band mass last slant dance 

had hand pass mast chant lance 

mad land grass past grant glance 

4. E, as in E-ve. 

There is . seldom any error made in the enunciation of 
such words as the following, except the slight one arising 
from not distinguishing between the longer sound of ee be- 
fore a "subtonic," as in feel, and the shorter before an 
" atonic," as in feet. 

The explosive force of the organic action in executing an 
" atonic " compresses the preceding vowel ; the gentle and 
gradual sliding of the ee into a " subtonic " allows it a 
longer duration. 

theme feel heed | week feet deep 

5. O 0, as in Oo-ze ; 0, as in L-oo-k. 

The sound of this element needs attention to the same 
distinction as in case of the ee. Before a " tonic " element 
it is prolonged ; before an " atonic," it is shortened. The 
difference is exemplified for the former in tool, for the latter 
in took. 

cool boom moon hook hoop foot 



ENUNCIATION OF WORDS. 25 

Exceptions. Good, wood, stood, 
tfhich have the oo short, though before a " subtonic." 

6. E, as in i£-rr. 

The just, not overdone, distinction between urn and earn 
is the object to be kept in view in practising on the follow 
ing words. This class of sounds is so liable to mispronun 
ciation that it needs close and repeated attention. See re 
marks on the " tonic " element, e in err, in the discussion o 
elementary sounds. 

err serve earth 1 firm 1 mercy merciful 

erst verse earl gird person terminate 

herb stern pearl girl servant perfectly 

7. E, as in i£-nd. 

The common error in the following class of words is that 
of allowing the vowel to approach the sound of a in ale ; 
thus, " taill" for tell. Other errors are such as " stiddy," 
for steady, " maysure," for measure. 

elk hence let bell den bed 

ready steady measure pleasure general genuine 

8. I, as in In. 

The common error of careless articulation in this element 
makes it approach the a of ale; thus, " sainn," for sin. An 
opposite error in foreign style, or in bad taste, gives "seen" 
for sin ; " ceetee," for city, etc. 

din dim bid ill lip bit 

9. A, as in Ai-v. 

Sometimes carelessly enunciated as a in an, prolonged ; 
thus, " aer" for air ; sometimes too fastidiously flattened, 

1 The same element with e in err, though differently spelled. 



26 ORTHOPHONY. 

and reduced to a in ale ; thus, " aer," for air. The true 
sound lies between. 

bare fare hair stare barely aware 

10. U, as in ££p. 

The error in enunciating this element is that of forming 
the sound in a coarse, guttural style, which makes it ap- 
proach the sound of o in on. This fault is prevalent in the 
usage of the Middle States. 

up bud gum dun but done 

11. 0, as in O-v. 

Three errors are extensively prevalent in the mode of 
enunciating this element : 1st, a local error of New Eng- 
land, which gives a double sound for a single one, com- 
mencing with o in old, and ending with u in up, or a in an ; 
thus, "nour" or "noar," for nor; 2d, a local error of the 
Middle States, which makes the sound too broad, and re- 
sembling the a in arm ; thus, " ndr" for nor ; 3d, a long 
and drawling sound, which has a coarse and slovenly char- 
acter ; thus, cawrd, for cord. 

orb 1 born cork sort form 

12. 0, as in On. 

A prevalent local error in Massachusetts, in the follow- 
ing class of sounds, exists in the words loss, lost, soft, etc., 
which are pronounced nearly with o as in old; thus, " loass" 
" loast," " soaft," etc., and sometimes with a double instead 
of a single sound ; thus, " loast" etc., for lost. The local 
error of usage in the State of Connecticut verges to the op- 
posite extreme, in such words, and gives for o a sound too 
nearly like that of a in an ; thus, " lass," etc., for loss. 

1 The r of these words is soft,, but never silent, as in the style of faulty 
usage. 



ENUNCIATION OF WORDS. 



27 



on 


mob 


bog 


rod 


lop 


loss 


odd 


rob 


dog 


god 1 


sop 


toss 



13. A, as in A-le. 

The common error in the enunciation of this element is 
that of making its " vanish " too conspicuous ; thus, " aeel" 
for ale. An opposite error is not uncommon : that of 
omitting the delicate " vanishing " sound entirely, which 
makes the style of enunciation coarse and negligent. 
ace day hail lade make came 

14. I, as in I-ce. 

The two errors to be avoided in enunciating this element 
are, 1st, that of commencing with too broad a sound ; thus, 
" aece" for ice (dece) ; 2d, that of commencing it with too 



flat a sound ; thus, 


" aece," 


for ice. 


See remarks on 


" tonic " elements. 








dice bide 


life 


lime 


fight dive 


rice ride 


rife 


time 


light hive 


vice side 


wife 


prime 


might rive 



15. 0, as in 0-ld. 

A prevalent error in the local usage of New England 
makes this o too short ; thus, " horn" for home. A com- 
mon error of the Middle States makes the sound too broad ; 
thus, "farce" for force. 



oh 


g° 


bold 


home 


lone 


hope 


lo 


wo 


cold 


loam 


bone 


mope 


so 


foe 


hold 


foam 


stone 


grope 


both 


ford 


fort 


course 


gore 


boat 


oath 


sword 


port 


force 


more 


coat 


sloth 


forge 


sport 


source 


pour 


dote 



16. Ou, as in Ou-r. 
The prevailing errors on this element are " dur" " aur* 
1 Frequently mispronounced "gawd," "goad," "goad," or "gad." 



28 ORTHOPHONY. 

and " eur," for our (p sounding as in done). The first 
two of these errors are current in the pronunciation of the 
Southern and Middle States ; the last in that of New Eng- 
land. 

out how loud cow fowl crown 

ounce now cloud count howl drown 

owl vow proud gown growl frown 

17. Oij as in Oi-\. 

The two errors usually exhibited in enunciating this ele- 
ment are, 1st, beginning the diphthong with the sound of o 
in own, instead of that of o in on ; 2d, closing with a sound 
resembling a in ale, instead of i in in. 

boil toil joy coin broil rejoice 

coil soil hoy join spoil appoint 

foil coy toy loin groin avoid 

18. U, as in Use (long, as in the verb; short, as in the 
noun). 

The common errors in articulating this compound ele- 
ment consist in, 1st, turning the whole sound into oo as 
in ooze ; 2d, making the diphthong commence with a in ale, 
instead of e in eve, shortened, or of the sound of y in yet. 

use tune feud cue human student constitution 
cure dupe hew due useful stupid institution 
lure fume few sue humor stewing revolution 

II. " Subtonic " Elements. 

1. L, as in L-u-ll. 
loll lie lad all weal dull 

2. M, as in M-ai-m. 
The common error in the enunciation of this element 



ENUNCIATION OF WORDS. 29 

is that of sounding it too slightly, and in a slack and lag- 
ging style. 

mine may move am him hum 

3. iV", as in JN-u-n. 

The common fault of enunciation in this, as in the pre- 
ceding element, is a want of that force which belongs to 
energetic and animated utterance. 

nine nay now an den din 

4. i?, as in i?-ap (r initial, before a vowel, or after a 
consonant). 

The error to be avoided in articulating this element is 
that of prolonging it into a " roll," or that of substituting 
for it the soft sound of r " final." A correct articulation in 
this instance always presents to the ear a firm, clear, and 
distinct, but very brief sound. 

raw red rid ream robe rude rub 

rye rent rim reel rose rule ruff 

ray rest rip reap roam rue rust 

brag brave grave crane pray trade stray 

brass brain grim crag prate track stride 

brad braid groan cry prone tread strut 

5. i?, as in Fa-r (r final, or before a consonant). 

The error most frequent in the articulation of this ele- 
ment is that of omitting it, through inadvertency. This 
fault is one of the conspicuous peculiarities of the style of 
pronunciation prevalent among the uncultivated classes of the 
city of London. But it is not less so, even among educated 
people, in the United States. The soft r, being one of the 
few liquid consonants which our language possesses, should 
never be omitted in enunciation. At the same time it 
should never be converted into the opposite, r as in rap, as 
it often is, in the style of foreigners ; neither should it ever 



30 OETHOPHONY. 

be dwelt upon, or prolonged in sound. It is properly but a 
" vanish," in its effect on the ear, as its vibrating and mur- 
muring articulation prevents it from becoming forcible or 
distinct. The tongue should execute it with a delicate 
motion adapted to its slight and evanescent character. 



hare 


bar 


ear 


ire 


ore 


lure 


bur 


dare 


car 


fear 


hire 


core 


pure 


cur 


fare 


mar 


hear 


mire 


door 


sure 


pur 


orb 


arm 


earn 


dark 


pear 


art 


burn 


horn 


harm 


fern 


hark 


marl 


dart 


turn 


form 


farm 


learn 


lark 


whirl 


part 


churn 



murmur former charmer warmer warbler burner forlorn 

Exercise on words containing both sounds of JR. 

(The difference in the sounds of the hard and the soft r 
should be exactly observed.) 



rare 


rear 


roar reared 


i roared rarely drier 


error 


horror 


terror brier 


prior truer crier 


regular 


barrier 


terrier merrier farrier carrier courier 


6 


. Ng, as in Si-ng (or n, 


before g hard or k). 


king 


gong 


hang 


hung bank ink 


ring 


wrong 


bang 


tongue rank sink 


wing 


prong 


rang 


sprung drank wink 


hanging 


ringing 


lancing 


mangling haranguing 



twanging winging glancing dangling prolonging 
swinging bringing dancing wrangling besprinkling 

7. B, as in B-&-be. 

The forcible execution of this and the two following ele- 
ments in a very clear and compact form is often indispen- 
sable to the full effect of vivid emotion. 

babe ball bead blab mob curb 

8. D, as in D-i-d. 

ilid dawn den laid mad bed 



ENUNCIATION OF WORDS. 



31 



9. G, as in G-a-g. 
gag gave gall gull hag log 

10. V, as in V-al-ve. 
valve vaunt cave leave velvet survive 

11. Z, as in Z-one (or s flat), 
zone maze has daisies disease 

12. Z, as in A-z-ure (or s as in measure). 
seizure measure vision composure derision 

13. Z as in Ye. 



ye 


yes 


young 


yawn 


yearly 


yea 


you 


youth 


yell 


yellow 



way 



14. W, as in JP-oe. 
was ware wed wine 

15. TR, as in TB-ine. 
they than then thee bathe beneath 

16. J, as in ^oy (and G soft). 
joy jar jilt page giant judge 



III. " Atonic " Elements. 

(All " atonies," from their utter want of vocality, need 
great force and precision in their articulation.) 

1. P, as in P-i-pQ. 

pulp pall pile pale paper pulpy 

2. T, as in T-en-t. 

tight tall top . mat tatter total 



32 



ORTHOPHONY. 



3. G hard, and K, as in G-a-ke ; and Q, as in #-ueen. 
key cane queen creak deck cork 

4. F, as in F-i-fe. 
file off 



fade 



say 



hail 



thank 



sham 



chair 



fell file off hoof 

5. S sharp, and G soft, as in O-ea-se. 
see sauce mass source 

6. If, as in H-q. 

heel hit 



had 



hat 



ceaseless 
hot 



7. Th, as in Th-in. 

through thong thrust hath breath 

8. Sh, as in Tush. 

shine share shroud ash hush 

9. Gh, as in Gh-xxx-ch. 
check march chine fetch 



IV. Syllabic Combinations. 
1. Initial Syllables. 

The common faults in the enunciation of syllables con- 
sist in a slack, obscure articulation of the single elements 
of which they are composed, and in addition the fault of 
negligently allowing a vowel sound to intervene between 
the consonants ; thus, " bala," for bid. True taste will 
never allow a slovenly style of articulation, but will always 
maintain a neat, clear, and exact sound of every element, in 
whatever combination it may occur. 

El, cl,jl, gl, pi, si, spl. 
Blame, bleed, blow, blest. Claim, clean, clime, close, 



ENUNCIATION OF WORDS. 33 

clot. Flame, flee, fly, flit. Glare, gleam, glide, gloss. 
Place, plea, ply, please. Slay, sleep, slide, slew. Spleen, 
splice, splay. 

Br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, spr, tr, sir, shr. 

(The following words need attention to a clear, distinct 
enunciation of the hard r, free, however, from prolonga- 
tion and roll.) 

Brave, bread, brink. Crave, creep, cried, crust. Drain, 
dream, dry, drop. Frame, free, fro, freeze. Grain, green, 
grind, ground. Pray, preach, pry, proud. Spray, spring, 
sprung, sprang. Trace, tree, try, trust, track, tread, trip, 
true. Stray, street, strife, strength. Shrine, shroud, shrub, 
shriek. 

Sm, sn, sp, st. 

Small, smite, smote. Snare, sneer, snow, snug. Space, 
speed, spike, spear. Stay, steer, stile, stop. 

2. Final Syllables. 
Ld, If, Ik, Im, Ip, Is, It, he. 

Bold, hailed, tolled. Elf, wolf, gulf, sylph. Milk, silk, 
bulk, hulk. Elm, helm, whelm, film. Help, gulp, alp, 
scalp. Falls, tells, toils. Fault, melt, bolt, hilt. Elve, 
delve, revolve. 

M'd, ms, nd, ns, nh, nee, nt. 

Maim'd, claim'd, climb'd, gloom'd. Gleams, streams, 

climes, stems. And, band, hand, land, lined, moaned. 

Gains, dens, gleans, suns. Bank, dank, drink, link. 

Dance, glance, hence, ounce. Ant, want, gaunt, point. 

Rb, rd, rk, rm, rn, rse, rs (rz), rt, rve, rb'd, rk'd, rrrfd, rnd, 
rst, rv'd. 

Barb, orb, herb, curb; barb'd, orb'd, curb'd, disturb'd. 
Hard, herd, hir'd, board, lord, gourd, bar'd, barr'd. Hark, 
3 



84 ORTHOPHONY. 

lark, jerk, stork, work ; mark'd, jerk'd, work'd. Arm, harm, 
farm, alarm ; arm'd, harm'd, alarm'd. Earn, learn, scorn, 
thorn, burn, turn, worn, shorn ; earn'd, scorn'd, burn'd, 
turn'd. Hearse, verse, force, horse ; dar'st, burst, first, 
worst, hears'd, vers'd, forc'd, hors'd. Bars, bears, hears, 
wears, pairs, tares, snares, repairs. Mart, dart, start, hurt, 
pert, girt. Carve, curve, serve, starve ; carv'd, curv'd, serv'd, 
starv'd. 

Sm, s'n, sp, st, ss'd, h, ct, k'd, ft, f'd, pt, p'd, p'n, k'n, Vn^ 
v'n, fn. 

Chasm, schism, prism, criticism, witticism, patriotism. 
1 Reas'n, seas'n, ris'n, chos'n. Asp, clasp, grasp, wasp, lisp, 
crisp. Vast, mast, lest, dost, must, lost, mist ; pass'd, bless'd, 
gloss'd, miss'd. Makes, quakes, likes, looks, streaks, rocks, 
crooks. Act, fact, respect, reject ; wak'd, lik'd, look'd, 
rock'd. Waft, oft, left, sift ; quaff 'd, scoff 'd, laugh'd. Apt, 
wept, crept ; sipp'd, supp'd, slop'd, pip'd, popp'd. 1 Op'n, 
rip'n, weap'n, happ'n. Tak'n, wak'n, weak'n, tok'n, drunk'n. 
Sadd'n, gladd'n, lad'n, burd'n, hard'n, gard'n. Grav'n, 
heav'n, riv'n, ov'n, ev'n, giv'n, wov'n. Bright'n, tight'n, 
whit'n. 

Lst, mst, nst, rst, dst, rdst, rmdst, rndst. 

CalPst, heal'st, till'st, fill'st, roll'st, pull'st. Arm'st, 
eharm'st, form'st, harm'st. Canst, runn'st, gain'st, against 
[agenst). Durst, worst, erst, first, bar'st, barr'st, hir'st. 
Midst, call'dst, fill'dst, roll'dst. Heard'st, guard'st, reward'st, 
discard'st. Arm'dst, harm'dst, form'dst, charm'dst. Learn'dst 
scorn'dst, burn'dst, turn'dst. 

Ble, pie, die, rl, bVd, dVd, pVd, rid. 

Able, feeble, bible, double ; troubl'd, babbl'd, bubbl'd, 
doubl'd. Ample, steeple, triple, topple ; tripl'd, toppl'd, 

1 and E should never be heard, in these and similar words, unless in 
ainging, and then only when a verse demands the syllable as a requisite 
to metre. 



ENUNCIATION OF WORDS. 



35 



dappl'd, crippl'd. Cradle, saddle, idle, bridle; cradl'd s 
saddl'd, idl'd, swaddl'd. Marl, hurl, whirl ; world, huiTd, 
whirl 'd, furl'd. 

Ngs, ngst, ng'd, ngdst. 

Rings, wrongs, hangs, songs ; hang'dst, sing'st, wrong'st, 
bring'st ; wrong'd, hang'd, clang'd ; wrong'dst, throng'dst. 

V. Exercise in transition from one class of Elements to 
another. 

The design of this exercise is to impress vividly on the 
mind the distinctive quality of each species of sound, and 
the effect of each on the organic action. The columns are 
to be read across the page. 



" Tonics." 


" Subtonics." 


" Atonies." 


A-il 


B-a-be 


PA-pe 


A-m 


DA-d 


T-en-t 


A-n 


G-*g 


C-SL-ke 


E-ve 


V-dX-ve 


F-i-fe 


Oo-ze 


Z-one 


<7-ea-se 


E-TT 


A-z-ure 


Pu-s/i 


i£nd 


TH-en 


Th-in 


I-n 


J-ud-ge 


Gh-nv-ch 



VI. Exercise in transition from one class of Organic Ac' 
tions to another. 



Labials. 


Dentals. 


Aspirate 


B-&-be 


Bid 


He 


P-i-pe 


T-en-t 


Nasals. 


M-ai-m 


Th-in 


N-u-n 


W-oe 


THAne 


Si-ng 


V-sii-ve 


J-OJ 


Linguals. 


F-i-fe 


Ch-ur-ch 


L-u-ll 


Palatics. 


A-z-ure 


i?-a-p 


O-a-he 


Tu-sh 


F-a-r 


G-&-g 


C-ea-se 




Ye 


Zone 





36 



ORTHOPHONY. 



VII. Exercise in difficult Combinations of Elements. 
1. U, as in Use. 



Lucubration 

Iwgwbrious 

-ncalcwlable 



absolutely 

abstinently 

accessory 

accurately 

agitated 

adequately 

angularly 

antepenult 

architecture 

agriculture 

annihilate 

antipathy 

apocrypha 

apostatize 

appropriate 

assiduous 

assimilate 

associate 

auricular 

acquiescence 

acquisition 

alienation 



Institution 

constitution 

revolution 



Accwmwlate 

manipulate 

deglutition 



Incalculably 

superiority 

supremacy 



2. Words of many syllables 
necessarily 



ordinarily 

momentarily 

temporarily 

voluntarily 

obediently 

immediately 

innumerable 

intolerable 

dishonorable 

ambiguously 

articulately 

collaterally 

colloquially 

affability 

agricultural 

allegorical 

alimentary 

astrological 

atmospherical 

Christianity 

chronological 



coextensively 

annihilation 

annunciation 

appreciation 

apologetic 

association 

circumlocution 

apocalyptic 

circumvolution 

coagulation 

colonization 

commemoration 

congratulatory 

authoritatively 

disinterestedly 

expostulatory 

dietetically 

disingenuousnes* 

Immutability 

compatibility 

ecclesiastical 

spirituality 



3. Repetition of Elements. 

H&\\ ! heavenly harmony. 

Up the Aigh hill he Aeaved a huge round stone. 

Heaven's fir*; star alike ye see. 



ENUNCIATION OF WORDS. 37 

Let it wave proudly o'er the good and brave. 

The supply laste still. 

And gleaming and streaming and steaming and beaming, 

And rushing and flushing and brushing and gushing, 

And flapping and rapping and clapping and slapping, 

And curling and whirling and purling and twirling, 

Retreating ana? beating and meeting and sheeting, 

Delaying and straying and playing and spraying, 

Advancing and glancing and prancing and dancing, 

Recoiling, turmoilin^r and toiling and boiling, 

And thumping and flumping and bumping and jumping, 

And dashing and flashing and splashing and clashing, 

And so never ending, but always descending, 

Sounds and motions for ever and ever are blending, 

All at once and all o'er, with a mighty uproar ; 

And this way the water comes down at Lodore. 

It is the firs£ step that cosfa. 

The deed was done in bvoad day. 

Norce now was left to tell the mournful tale. 

Ta&e care that you be not deceived, — dear friends. 

Zie /ightly on her, earth ! her step was /ight on thee. 

Thou was£ struck dumb with amazement. 

Can no one be found faithful enough to warn him of 

his danger ? No one dared do it. 
A good deal of disturbance ensued. 
He gave him good advice which he did not take. 
A dar& cloud spread over the heavens. 
Had he but heeded the counsel of Ais friend, he might 

feave been saved. 

He came at las* too late to be of any service. 
The magistrates stood on an elevated platform. 



38 ORTHOPHONY. 

THE SIEGE OF BELGRADE. 

(Alliterative use of the Elements.) 

An Austrian army, awfully arrayed, 

Boldly, by battery, besieged Belgrade ; 

Cossack commanders cannonading come — 

Dealing destruction's devastating doom ; 

Every endeavor, engineers essay, 

For fame, for fortune, fighting furious fray ! 

Generals 'gainst generals grapple, grasping good. 

How honors Heaven heroic hardihood ! 

Infuriate, indiscriminate in ill, 

Kindred kill kinsmen, kinsmen kindred kill ! 

Labor low levels loftiest longest lines — 

Men march 'mid mounds, 'mid moles, 'mid murderous mines; 

Now noisy, noxious, noticed nought 

Of outward obstacles opposing ought. 

Poor patriots, partly purchased, partly pressed ; 

Quite quaking, quickly quarter, quarter quest, 

Reason returns, religious right redounds, 

Suwarrow stops such sanguinary sounds. 

Truce to thee, Turkey, triumph to thy train ! 

Unjust, unwise, unmerciful Ukraine ! 

Vanish vain victory, vanish victory vain ! 

Why wish ye warfare ? Wherefore welcome were 

Xerxes, Ximenes, Xanthus, Xaviere? 

Yield, ye youths ! ye yeomen, yield your yell ! 

Zeno's Zapater's Zoroaster's zeal, 

And all attracting, arms against acts appeal. 



It is a fact familiar in the experience of most teachers, 
that after the utmost care in the sytematic cultivation of the 
utterance of young readers, by regular analytic exercises, 
such as the preceding, the influence of colloquial negligence 



ENUNCIATION OF WORDS. 39 

in habit is so powerful, that the same individual who has 
just articulated with perfect exactness the elements on a 
column, while he is kept mechanically on his guard against 
error by express attention to details, will immediately, on 
beginning to read a page of continuous expression of 
thought, relapse into his wonted errors of enunciation. To 
correct this tendency no resort is so effectual as that of 
studying analytically a few lines previous to commenc- 
ing the usual practice of a reading lesson. The attention 
must first be turned to the words as such, as forms of ar- 
ticulation, — then to their sounds in connection with their 
sense. 

The following will be found useful modes of practising 
such exercises as are now suggested. Begin at the end of 
a line, sentence, or paragraph, so as to prevent the possi- 
bility of reading negligently, then, 1st, articulate every ele- 
ment in every word, separately and very distinctly, through- 
out the line or sentence ; 2d, enunciate every syllable of 
each word, throughout the line or sentence, clearly and ex- 
actly ; 3d, pronounce every word in the same style ; 4th, 
read the line or sentence from the beginning forward, with 
strict attention to the manner of pronouncing every word ; 
5th, read the whole line or sentence with an easy fluent 
enunciation, paying strict attention to the expression of the 
meaning, but without losing correctness in the style of pro- 
nunciation. 

This is, apparently, a merely mechanical drill ; but its 
effects are strikingly beneficial in a very short time. The 
habits of classes of young readers have thus been, in some 
instances, effectually changed within a very few weeks from 
slovenliness and indistinctness to perfect precision and pro- 
priety, united to fluency and freedom of style. 

To adults, also, the practice of such exercises as have 
been mentioned proves in the highest degree useful, as an 
effectual means of correcting erroneous habit, and of ac- 
quiring that distinctness of utterance which is so important 



• 



40 ORTHOPHOffT. 

in the exercise of public speaking, or in that of private 
reading for social and literary purposes. 

An exercise of great practical value, as regards the for- 
mation of habits in enunciation, is to select from every 
reading lesson, before and after the regular consecutive 
reading of a piece, all words and phrases which contain 
difficult combinations, and repeat them often. 



PRONUNCIATION. 

A full statement of the rules of usage in pronunciation, 
as regards the accent of polysyllables, does not properly 
fall within the scope of this work, which is designed rather 
for the cultivation of the voice and the discipline of the 
organs than as a manual of orthoepy. The most impor- 
tant classes of errors in pronunciation have been already 
indicated. But this branch of the subject is discussed at 
greater length in several of the other elocutionary treatises 
prepared by the author of the present volume. A profitable 
daily exercise would be the reading aloud of those words 
in either of our standard national dictionaries in which the 
various authorities are found to differ, and to adopt as cor- 
rect the pronunciation in which the greater number of or- 
thoepists agree. 



CHAPTER III. 

MODE OF UTTEEANCE. 

Every sound of the human voice is characterized by one 
of three modes of utterance, or delivery of the breath. 
The utterance may be fully vocalized in resonant sound, or 
it may be entirely aspirated as in a whisper, and it may 
apply to any degree of force, pitch, movement, etc. The 
*Jiree modes of utterance are — 



MODE OF UTTERANCE. 41 

1. Effusive, in which the breath is gently effused or 
breathed out, without voluntary or conscious effort or im- 
pulse ; as in all tranquil emotions, or where the depth of 
feeling overcomes the ordinary activity and variety in the 
expression, — in solemnity, reverence, melancholy, gloom, 
etc. Refer to examples of these feelings in the succeeding 
pages, for practice. Read aloud, also, with similar effusive 
utterance, the table of Tonic Elements, page 7. 

2. Expulsive, which demands more of energy and im- 
pulse in the action of the vocal organs than in effusive ut- 
terance. It is used with all degrees of force, from the 
utterance of some quiet, moral sentiment or poetic de- 
scription to the greatest energy of impulsive feeling. Il- 
lustrations will be found on pp. 73-75. Repeat, also, the 
table of Subtonic Elements energetically, on page 11. 

3. Explosive, which is abrupt, and at times violent in 
percussive effect as the sound strikes the ear. The power to 
produce the breath or voice with this clear, incisive percus- 
sion is one of the results of practice. Very few have the 
power to produce, at will, the distinct ictus of the unim- 
passioned explosive, as in the quiet uses of the Radical 
Stress, or the abrupt shock of the louder utterances of ex- 
plosion. Examples will be found on pp. 77, 78. Repeat, 
also, with explosive utterances, the table of Atonies. Fi- 
nally, review the three tables, giving each table with the 
three modes of utterance. 



42 ORTHOPHONY. 

CHAPTER IV. 

QUALITY OF VOICE. 

WHISPERING. 

The progressive discipline of the organs, for the purposes 
of utterance, comprises the practice of every stage of audi- 
ble voice, from whispering to shouting and calling. We 
proceed now to the first stage of utterance, that of whis- 
pering, which is the nearest in style and effect to breath- 
ing, and forms the extreme of " aspirated " or breathing 
" quality." 

Whispering differs from even the " explosive," or strong- 
est form of the breathing exercises, in being articulated as 
a mode of speech, and in taking on, to a certain extent, the 
qualities of " expression ; " thus we not only use the whis- 
per for secret communication, but for the utterance of ex- 
cessive fear, or of deep awe, suppressed anger, or any other 
naturally violent emotion when it is kept down by some 
overawing restraint. 

Whispering, therefore, as a discipline of the organs of 
voice, carries on to a greater extent, and with more special 
effect, all the beneficial results of the exercises in full, deep, 
and forcible breathing. The whisper, even in its gentlest or 
" effusive " form, should, as a vocal exercise, be practised on 
the scale of public speaking, — that is to say, with a force 
sufficient to create full and distinct articulation and intelli* 
gible utterance in a large hall, or any similar apartment. In 
this form it is sometimes termed " the stage whisper." 

The function of whispering on this scale demands the 
full expansion of the chest, a deep inspiration, a powerful ex- 
pulsion of the breath, the practice of frequent pausing and re- 
newing the supply of breath, without which a forcible whisper 
cannot be sustained. It trains the student to close attention 



WHISPERING. 43 

to his habit of breathing, and to the position of the body 
and the action of the organs. It thus facilitates the acquisi- 
tion of a perfect control over the organs of speech, — the 
prime requisite to easy and effective utterance. 

A subsidiary advantage attending this process of power- 
ful whispering consists in the greatly increased intensity 
which it produces in the organic function of articulation. 
The whisper being performed as if addressed to a person at 
the distance of a hundred feet from the speaker, compels a 
force of percussion in the tongue and the other minor or- 
gans of speech sufficient to compensate for the absence of 
the common round tone of the voice. The style of enunci- 
ation accordingly becomes that of the most intense earn- 
estness. The exercise now prescribed, therefore, is of im- 
mense advantage as a preparatory discipline to the organs 
of speech, as well as a process of training for full-toned 
and energetic use of the voice. 

1. " Effusive " Whispering. 

This mode of utterance belongs to tranquil emotion 
when expressed in the language of deep-felt awe or profound 
repose, which represses, by an approach to fear, at the same 
time that it excites the voice by its intensity. The ex- 
tracts below are used simply as a convenient drill-exercise, 
and not necessarily indicating the full expression. 

Practise with the effusive whisper upon the table of Ele- 
ments and words. 

Exercise. 
Stillness of Night. — Byron. 

All heaven and earth are still, — though not in sleep, 
But breathless, as we grow when feeling most ; 

And silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep : — 
All heaven and earth are still : From the high host 
Of stars to the lulled lake, and mountain coast, 

All is concenter 'd in a life intense. 



4A ORTHOPHONY. 

Pathos. 
Dying Request. — Mrs. Hemans. 

Leave me ! — thy footstep with its lightest sound, 

The very shadow of thy waving hair, 
Wakes in my soul a feeling too profound, 

Too strong for aught that lives and dies, to bear : — 
Oh ! bid the conflict cease ! 

2. " Expulsive " Whispering. 

This species of exercise, being much more forcible than 
the preceding, and corresponding in energy to the style of 
bold declamatory utterance, it should be repeatedly per- 
formed with the utmost force of the whisper which the 
student can command, on the elements, syllables, and words, 
and on the following example, the tone of which implies 
the intensest force of earnest utterance, suppressed by appre- 
hension approaching to fear. 

Exercise. 

Military Command. — Anonymous. 

Soldiers ! You are now within a few steps of the en- 
emy's outpost. Our scouts report them as slumbering in 
parties around their watch-fires, and utterly unprepared for 
our approach. One disorderly noise or motion may leave 
us at the mercy of their advanced guard. Let every man 
keep the strictest silence, under pain of instant death ! 

Awe and Terror. 

Fate of MacGregor. — Hogg. 

All silent they went, for the time was approaching, 
The moon the blue zenith already was touching ; 
No foot was abroad on the forest or hill, 
No sound but the lullaby sung by the rill. 



PURE TONE. 45 

3. " Explosive " Whispering. 

The " explosive " whisper, like the " explosive " breath- 
ing, imparts a still greater power to the vocal organs by 
the vivid, abrupt, and instantaneous force with which it 
bursts out. The explosive intensity of articulation, which 
it produces, calls at the same time for the utmost precision 
in the functions of the tongue, the lips, and all the minor 
instruments of enunciation. This style of whispering should 
be repeatedly practised on the elements, syllables, and 
words, and on the following exercise, which exemplifies 
the utterance of the most abrupt and intense alarm, at once 
exciting and suppressing the voice. 

Exercise. 
Military Command. — Anonymous. 
Hark ! I hear the bugles of the enemy ! They are on 
their march along the bank of the river. We must re- 
treat instantly, or be cut off from our boats. I see the 
head of their column already rising over the height. Our 
only safety is in the screen of this hedge. Keep close to 
it ; be silent ; and stoop as you run. For the boats ! For- 
ward! 

The exercises in whispering may now be repeated, on the 
preceding examples, in the form of a half whisper, which, 
as its name imports, lies half way between a whisper and 
the ordinary " quality " of the voice, or " pure tone." 

Pure Tone. 

True musical cultivation proceeds upon the assumption, 
and insists, with inevitable authority on the primary rule, 
that every human voice can and must utter " pure " tone. 
No failure, no remissness in this respect, is ever tolerated 
in appropriate training in vocal music. The result, as 
might be expected, corresponds to the pains taken to regu 



46 ORTHOPHONY. 

late the position and action of the organs in elementary 
practice. All who are recognized as even tolerable singers 
utter every sound of the voice in the form of pure tone ; 
entirely free from pectoral gruffness, guttural suffocation, 
nasal twang, or oral thinness of quality ; and among pro- 
ficients in the art, whatever personal peculiarity of voice is 
suffered to exist, is such only as keeps within the limits of 
perfect purity, and serves rather to form a crowning grace 
from the hand of nature than in any sense a defect. A 
similar result will always be found to attend the diligent 
cultivation of the voice in the modes of utterance appro- 
priate in reading and conversation. 

Elements of Quality, which used separately in excess, and to 
the exclusion of other elements, impair Purity of Tone. 

1. A hollow and false pectoral murmur, arising from an 
imperfect habit of breathing, in consequence of which the 
lungs are not furnished with a sufficient supply of air to 
produce full and clear tone. Another cause of this fault in 
utterance usually is the feeble action of the abdominal 
muscles, and therefore an inadequate expulsion of the 
breath, and a smothered or muffled quality of voice, which 
makes its sound appear buried within the frame or issuing 
directly from the chest. Full inspiration, the expulsive ac- 
tion of the abdominal muscles, and the cultivation of the 
middle notes of the voice, together with habits of healthful 
exercise and cheerful emotions, are the best remedies for a 
tendency to hollow pectoral tone. 

2. A fault which bears a resemblance to the preceding is 
that of aspirated quality, by which a half-whispering effect 
of fear is imparted to every sound of the voice. This de- 
fect of utterance arises in part from the want of full and 
deep inspiration ; it arises sometimes from organic weak- 
ness, or from embarrassment, which causes a slight " rigor " 
of the organic parts, and consequently allows more breath 
to escape from the trachea than is converted into sound 



PURE TONE. 47 

by the larynx. The condition of pure tone is that much 
breath should be drawn in, but little given out, and that the 
whole of what is suffered to escape should be converted into 
sound ; while in " aspirated quality " little is drawn in and 
much is given out. A due attention to the full expansion 
of the chest, to deep inspiration, and to the vigorous action 
of the abdominal muscles, is the chief preventive of the 
faulty habit of aspirated utterance. 

3. Another bad quality of voice consists in what is termed 
guttural tone, a mode of utterance which seems to make 
the voice issue from an obstructed throat. This fault is of 
a twofold character : first, the soft, choked sound not un- 
usual in the utterance of persons inclined to fulness of 
habit and corpulence ; second, the hard, drj', and barking 
voice, which sometimes characterizes persons of an opposite 
habit and frame. The immediate organic cause of this bad 
quality of tone is an improper pressure of the muscles 
around the larynx, and the root of the tongue ; causing 
the voice in the one case apparently to issue from the 
pharynx or swallow instead of the larynx, and in the other 
to originate in the upper part of the throat only, cut off 
from all communication with either the chest or the mouth. 
The free expansion of the chest and the energetic action 
of the abdominal muscles, with the habit of opening the 
mouth freely when reading or speaking, are the surest 
means of avoiding or removing this great hindrance to pur- 
ity of tone. 

4. Another fault is that commonly termed nasal tone, 
which makes the voice sound as if it came only through 
the nose. The chief security against this consists in the 
habit of fully expanding the chest, and the free opening of 
the mouth, not only in front, but in the back part, by rais- 
ing the veil of the palate, as is mechanically done in the 
act of coughing, in consequence of which the voice escapes 
in its proper direction, instead of being allowed to drift 
with force against the nasal passages while they remain 



48 ORTHOPHONY. 

partially shut. At the same time care must be taken not 
to raise the veil of the palate so high as to stop the nasal 
passage entirely, in the style of obstruction caused by a cold, 
producing the utterance of " Cub id" for " Come in." A 
due degree of nasal ring is one of the component elements 
of a good voice. 

5. Both the guttural and the nasal tones are combined, in 
the utterance of some readers and speakers ; and the effect 
is of course rendered, in such cases, doubly injurious. 
Sometimes the pectoral tone is blended with the other two, 
causing the extreme of impure tone in all its bad proper- 
ties. The effect of this species of voice is a grunting utter- 
ance, resembling that of the inferior animals, instead of the 
clear, resonant tone of the human being. 

6. There is still another fault of utterance, which is yet 
more prevalent than those which have been described. It 
consists in what may be termed oral tone. It is the slight, 
ineffective voice of indifference, of feebleness, or fatigue, or 
the mincing tone of false taste. Oral tone is always as- 
cribed to the languid beauty or the trifling fop. It causes 
the vocal sound to issue from the mouth in a style which 
seems to make it lose all connection with the throat and the 
chest, and consequently to lose all its natural depth and ful- 
ness. The full expansion of the chest and the vigorous, 
appulsive action of the abdominal muscles which insures 
the energetic expulsion of the breath, together with the 
cultivation of the lower notes of the scale, in the habits of 
utterance, are the chief correctives of the tendency to the 
fault of the slender " oral " tone. 

False utterance, or impure tone, arises in all instances 
from the exclusive or undue, or it may be the imperfect 
use of one portion of the vocal organs, as is intimated in 
the designation of ".pectoral," " guttural," or " nasal " 
tone. 

These terms, however, are used not in strict propriety, 
as the larynx is the immediate source of all vocal sounds, 



PURE TONE. 49 

but for the description of apparent effects. The sound of 
the voice is made up of a note, or tone, and its resonance. 
The former comes directly from the larynx ; the latter from 
the adjoining cavities of the chest, the pharynx, the mouth, 
the nostrils, and the interior of the head. True utterance 
and " pure tone " employ the whole apparatus of voice in 
one consentaneous act, combining in one perfect sphere of 
sound, if it may be so expressed, the depth of effect pro- 
duced by the resonance of the chest, the force and firmness 
imparted by the due compression of the throat, the clear, 
ringing property, caused by the due proportion of nasal 
effect, and the softening and sweetening influence of the 
head and mouth. The lightest effects of Pure Tone are 
chiefly the result of head and mouth resonance, and may 
properly be termed " Head Tone." 

The following exercises should be practised with the 
closest attention to the perfect purity of vocal sound, as 
associated with the spirit of deep-felt but gentle emotion. 
The perfect tranquillity and regularity of the breathing and 
the cautious and sparing emission of the breath are points 
of the utmost moment to the pure and perfectly liquid for- 
mation of voice. The mode of utterance required in the 
following exercises is " effusion" — not " expulsion " or 
" explosion," — a gentle, continuous emission of sound, ar- 
ticulate, but very soft ; as it always is in the utterance of 
subdued and chastened emotion. 

/ EXAMPLES OF PURE TONE. 
I. SUBDUED OR SOFTENED FORCE. 

1. Pathos. 
Elegy. — Gray. 
Here rests his head upon the lap of earth 

A youth, to Fortune and to Fame unknown ; 
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth, 
And Melancholy mark'd him for her own. 

4 



50 ORTHOPHONY. 

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere, 
Heaven did a recompense as largely send : 

He gave to misery all he had — a tear, 

He gain'd from Heaven — 't was all he wish'd — a friend 

No farther seek his merits to disclose, 

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, 

(There they alike in trembling hope repose,) 
The bosom of his Father and his God. 

2. Solemnity. 
Essay on Man.— Pope. 

Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate, 
All but the page prescribed, their present state : 
From brutes what men, from men what spirits knows 
Or who could suffer being here below ? 
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, 
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play ? 
Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food, 
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood. 
Oh, blindness to the future ! kindly given, 
That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heaven: 
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, 
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, 
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd, 
And now a bubble burst, and now a world. 

Hope humbly then ; with trembling pinions soar r 
Wait the great teacher Death ; and God adore. 
What future bliss, he gives not thee to know, 
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now. 
Hope springs eternal in the human breast : 
Man never is, but always to be, blest. 
The soul, uneasy and confined, from home, 
Rests and expatiates in a life to come. 



PURE TONE. 51 

3. Tranquillity. 

Life. — Mrs. Barbauld. 

Life ! we have been long together, 
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather. 
'T is hard to part when friends are dear, 
Perhaps 't will cost a sigh, a tear ; 

Then steal away, give little warning, 
Choose thine own time ; 
Say not good-night ; but in that happier clime 

Bid me good-morning ! 

4. Tranquillity. 

Country Paeson. — Goldsmith. 

Near yonder copse, where once the garden smil'd, 

And still where many a garden flower grows wild ; 

There, where a few torn shrubs the place disclose, 

The village preacher's modest mansion rose. 

A man he was to all the country dear, 

And passing rich with forty pounds a year ; 

Remote from towns he ran his godly race, 

Nor e'er had chang'd, nor wish'd to change his place ; 

Unskilful he to fawn, or seek for power, 

By doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour ; 

Far other aims his heart had learnt to prize, 

More bent to raise the wretched than to rise. 

His house was known to all the vagrant train, 

He chid their wanderings, but reliev'd their pain ; 

The long-remember'd beggar was his guest, 

Whose beard descending swept his aged breast ; 

The ruin'd spendthrift, now no longer proud, 

Claim'd kindred there, and had his claims allow'd ; 

The broken soldier, kindly bade to stay, 

Sat by his fire, and talk'd the night away ; 

Wept o'er his wounds, or tales of sorrow done, 

Shoulder'd his crutch, and show'd how fields were won. 



52 ORTHOPHONY. 

Pleas'd with his guests, the good man learn'd to glow, 
And quite forgot their vices iu their woe ; 
Careless their merits or their faults to scan, 
His pity gave ere charity began. 

At church, with meek and unaffected grace, 
His looks adorned the venerable place ; 
Truth from his lips prevail'd with double sway, 
And fools, who came to scoff, remain'd to pray. 
The service past, around the pious man, 
With steady zeal, each honest rustic ran ; 
E'en children follow'd with endearing wile, 
And pluck'd his gown, to share the good man's smile. 
His ready smile a parent's warmth expressed, 
Their welfare pleas'd him, and their cares distressed ; 
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given, 
But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven. 
As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm, 
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head. 

ii. "moderate" force. 

Perfect purity of tone is indispensable not only to the 
effect of " subdued " force, which corresponds to the gentle 
style of passages marked "•piano" in music, and has been 
exemplified in the preceding exercises, but likewise to that 
degree of force which may be termed moderate, in contra- 
distinction to the energetic style of declamation, the bold 
tones of impassioned recitation, or, on the other hand, 
the suppressed or softened utterance of subdued emotion. 
" Moderate force " is a convenient designation of the usual 
utterance of didactic sentiment, in the form of essays or 
scientific and literary discourses, doctrinal and practical ser- 
mons, and other forms of address, not distinguished by vivid 
narration, graphic description, or impassioned feeling. 

The style of utterance in the " moderate " force of " pure 



PURE TONE. 53 

tone " is gentle " expulsion," with a clear " radical move- 
ment," which keeps it from subsiding into mere " effusion," 
and yet does not extend to " explosion." The degree of 
force implied in this technical use of the word " moderate," 
is merely that which audible utterance, distinct articulation, 
and intelligible expression, demand for the ordinary pur- 
poses of public speaking, in those forms which address 
themselves to the understanding rather than the heart, and 
in which the speaker's great object in communication is to 
be understood, rather than to be felt. 

" Moderate force," as a technical designation in elocu- 
tion, exhibits pure tone in the following gradations. 

1. " Grave" Style. 

The " grave " style differs from the " solemn " in the fact 
that the former is not marked by " effusive " or " subdued " 
force, but on the contrary assumes something of the " ex- 
pulsive " tone of firmness and authority, although in a gentle 
and moderate style. 

1. 
Eternity of God. — Greenwood. 

The Throne of Eternity is a throne of mercy and love. 
God has permitted and invited us to repose ourselves and 
our hopes on that which alone is everlasting and unchangea- 
ble. We shall shortly finish our allotted time on earth, even 
if it should be unusually prolonged. We shall leave behind 
us all which is now familiar and beloved ; and a world of 
other days and other men will be entirely ignorant that 
once we lived. But the same unalterable Being will still 
preside over the universe, through all its changes ; and from 
his remembrance we shall never be blotted. We can never 
be where He is not, nor where He sees and loves and up- 
holds us not. He is our Father and our God forever. He 
takes us from earth, that He may lead us to heaven, that 
He may refine our nature from all its principles of corrup- 



54 ORTHOPHONY. 

tion, share with us his own immortality, admit us to his er« 
erlasting habitation, and crown us with his eternity. 



Defence of Greenleaf. — G. S. Eillard. 

There is another class of considerations, in this case, which 
might be urged, — another class of emotions which might 
be addressed in my client's behalf. I might speak to you 
of the gloom which an unfavorable verdict will spread among 
a large circle of friends and relatives, of the anguish of his 
broken-hearted wife, of the withering blight which will fall 
upon his innocent children, of the deep, unmoving shadow 
which will settle upon his once cheerful hearth. 

But that stern fibre, which the mind and character de- 
rive from our northern skies, rebukes such attempts, and 
insures their failure, if made. Such chords, if skilfully 
struck, will tremble and vibrate for a moment, but will not 
draw the judgment from its place. Justice is deaf, passion- 
less, inexorable. Upon the guilty head the great axe must 
fall, no matter what chords of love it severs in its sweep. 



The Seven Ages. — Shakespeare. 
All the world's a stage, 
And all the men and women merely players : 
They have their exits and their entrances ; 
And one man in his time plays many parts, 
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, 
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms : 
And then, the whining school-boy with his satchel, 
And shining morning-face, creeping like snail 
Unwillingly to school : And then the lover ; 
Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad 
Made to his mistress' eyebrow : Then, a soldier ; 
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, 
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, 



PURE TONE. 55 

Seeking the bubble reputation 

Even in the cannon's mouth : And then, the justice ; 

In fair round belly, with good capon lined, 

With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut, 

Full of wise saws and modern instances, 

And so he plays his part : The sixth age shifts 

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon ; 

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side : 

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide 

For his shrunk shank ; and his big manly voice, 

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes 

And whistles in his sound : Last scene of all, 

That ends this strange eventful history, 

Is second childishness and mere oblivion : 

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. 

The learner, after having practised the example of 
" grave " style, should repeat, in that tone all the " tonic " 
elements, — then a selection from the tabular exercises on 
words ; so as to acquire a perfect command of the force and 
pitch of " grave " style, as differing from the " solemn," on 
the one hand, and from the " serious," on the other. 

2. " Serious " Style. 

This form of utterance differs from the preceding, in not 
possessing so low a pitch, — a milder form of the same gen- 
eral effect. The fault usually exhibited in " serious " style 
substitutes the deep and full-toned notes of the " grave " 
style for the moderate and less-marked character of the 
merely " serious." The purity of tone in this style is usu^ 
ally marred by the same cause as in the preceding instance 
of the " grave " utterance. The beauty and gentleness of 
the tone of serious feeling are thus lost ; and the " expres- 
sion " is untrue to the intended effect. 

When the " serious " tone has come fully under the stu- 
dent's command, by practice on the exercise subjoined, the 



56 ORTHOPHONY. 

repetition of the elements, syllables, and words will serve 
to fix it definitely in the memory. 

1. 

The Beauty of Virtue. — Blair. 

There is no virtue without a characteristic beauty to 
make it particularly loved of the good, and to make the bad 
ashamed of their neglect of it. To do what is right, argues 
superior taste as well as morals ; and those whose practice 
is evil feel an inferiority of intellectual power and enjoy- 
ment, even where they take no concern for a principle. 

Doing well has something more in it than the fulfilling of 
a duty. It is the cause of a just sense of elevation of char- 
acter ; it clears and strengthens the spirits ; it gives higher 
reaches of thought ; it widens our benevolence, and makes 
the current of our peculiar affections swift and deep. 

2. 

Hamlet moralizes upon the Disgraceful Custom of Carousing 
by the King. — Shakespeare. 

Hora. Is it a custom ? 

Ham. Ay, marry is 't ; 

But to my mind, though I am native here 
And to the manner born, it is a custom 
More honor'd in the breach than the observance. 
This heavy-headed revel east and west 
Makes us traduced and tax'd of other nations : 
They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase 
Soil our addition, and indeed it takes 
From our achievements, though perform'd at height, 
The pith and marrow of our attribute. 
So, oft it chances in particular men, 
That for some vicious mole of nature in them, 
As in their birth, — wherein they are not guilty 5 
Since nature cannot choose his origin ; — 
By the o'ergrowth of some complexion 



PURE TONE. 57 

Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason ; 

Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens 

The form of plausive manners ; — that these men, — 

Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect, 

Being nature's livery, or fortune's star, — 

Their virtues else — be they as pure as grace, 

As infinite as man may undergo — 

Shall in the general censure take corruption 

From that particular fault ; the dram of leav'n 

Doth all the noble substance of 'em sour, 

To his own scandal. 

3. 

The Music of the Human Voice.— Willis. 
I remember listening, in the midst of a crowd, many 
years ago, to the voice of a girl, — a mere child of sixteen 
summers, — till I was bewildered. She was a pure, high- 
hearted, impassioned creature, without the least knowledge 
of the world or her peculiar gift ; but her own thoughts had 
wrought upon her like the hush of a sanctuary, and she spoke 
low, as if with an unconscious awe. I could never trifle in 
her presence. My nonsense seemed out of place ; and my 
practised assurance forsook me utterly. She is changed now. 
She has been admired, and has found out her beauty ; and 
the music of her tone is gone ! She will recover it by and 
by, when the delirium of the world is over, and she begins 
to rely once more upon her own thoughts for company ; 
but her extravagant spirits have broken over the thrilling 
timidity of childhood, and the charm is unwound. 

4. 

Defence of Greenleaf. — G. S. Hillard. 

I presume that no advocate, in a capital cause, was ever 

satisfied with his efforts in his client's behalf ; who did not 

feel, or fancy, on a sober reconsideration of his argument, 

that he might have done better. I am prepared to be dis- 



58 ORTHOPHONY. 

turbed by this reflection hereafter ; and, if so, I must draw 
what comfort I can, from that I now feel, — that I have 
done what I could. 

I have endeavored to argue this cause fairly. I am not 
conscious of having misstated the facts in evidence, or laid 
down the law incorrectly ; and if I have, I shall be sure to 
hear of it before the case is through. In such cases, how- 
ever, there is no great difference between what can be ac- 
complished by the highest or the humblest faculties. The 
prisoner is saved, if at all, by the law and facts ; and by 
these, and these alone, do I solicit my client's acquittal. If I 
have failed, or been wanting, let them speak for me, and 
make up for my deficiencies. 

3. "Animated" or Lively, Style. 

This mode of voice differs in three respects from the 
" serious ; " it has more force, a higher pitch, and a quicker 
movement ; and the comparatively greater force renders the 
purity of the tone still more conspicuous. 

The exercise in " animated " utterance should be ex- 
tended, as a matter of practice, to the elementary sounds, 
and to the repetition of the tables of words as far and as 
often as individuals or classes may seem to require. 

1. 

Animal Happiness. — Paley. 

The air, the earth, the water, teem with delighted exist- 
ence. In a spring noon, or a summer evening, on which- 
ever side we turn our eyes, myriads of happy beings crowd 
upon our view. " The insect youth are on the wing." 
Swarms of new-born flies are trying their pinions in the air. 
Their sportive motions, their gratuitous activity, their con- 
tinual change of place, without use or purpose, testify their 
joy, and the exultation which they feel in their lately discov- 
ered faculties. 



PURE TONE. 59 



Hudibras. — Butler. 
He was in logic a great critic, 
Profoundly skill'd in analytic ; 
He could distinguish, and divide 
A hair 'twixt south and south-west side ; 
On either which he would dispute, 
Confute, change hands, and still confute : 
He 'd undertake to prove, by force 
Of argument, a man's no horse ; 
He 'd prove a buzzard is no fowl, 
And that a lord may be an owl ; 
A calf an alderman, a goose a justice, 
And rooks Committee-men and Trustees. 
He 'd run in debt by disputation, 
And pay with ratiocination : 
All this by syllogism, true 
In mood and figure he would do. 
For rhetoric, he could not ope 
His mouth, but out there flew a trope ; 
And, when he happen'd to break off 
I' th* middle of his speech, or cough, 
H' had hard words ready to show why, 
And tell what rules he did it by. 



A 



3. 

Sir Roger de Coverley. — Spectator. 

As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he 
keeps them in very good order, and will suffer nobody to 
sleep in it besides himself ; for if by chance he has been 
surprised into a short nap at sermon, upon recovering out 
of it he stands up and looks about him, and if he sees any- 
body else nodding, either wakes them himself, or sends his 
servants to them. Several other of the old knight's partic- 
ularities break out upon these occasions. Sometimes, he 



60 ORTHOPHONY. 

will be lengthening out a verse in the singing psalms, half a 
minute after the rest of the congregation have done with it ; 
sometimes, when he is pleased with the matter of his devo- 
tion, he pronounces Amen three or four times to the same 
prayer ; and sometimes stands up when everybody else is 
upon their knees, to count the congregation, or see if any 
of his tenants are missing. 

I was yesterday very much surprised to hear my old 
friend, in the midst of the service, calling out to one John 
Matthews, to mind what he was about, and not disturb the 
congregation. This John Matthews, it seems, is remarka- 
ble for being an idle fellow, and at that time was kicking 
his heels for his diversion. This authority of the knight, 
though exerted in that odd manner which accompanies him 
in all the circumstances of life, has a very good effect upon 
the parish, who are not polite enough to see anything ridic- 
ulous in his behavior ; besides that, the general good sense 
and worthiness of his character make his friends observe 
these little singularities as foils that rather set off than 
blemish his good qualities. 



As You Like It. — Shakespeare. 
Jacq. de B. Let me. have audience for a word or two. 
I am the second son of old Sir Roland, 
That bring these tidings to this fair assembly : 
Duke Frederick, hearing how that every day 
Men of great worth resorted to this forest, 
Address'd a mighty power, which were on foot 
In his own conduct, purposely to take 
His brother here, and put him to the sword : 
And to the skirts of this wild wood he came ; 
Where, meeting with an old religious man, 
After some question with him, was converted 
Both from his enterprise and from the world ; 
His crown bequeathing to his banish'd brother, 



PURE TONE. 61 

And all their lands restor'd to them again 
That were with him exil'd. This to be true, 
I do engage my life. 

4. " Gay" or Brisk, Style. 

This mode of utterance has all the characteristics of the 
u animated " style, carried to a greater extent. The tone to 
which we now refer, being that of exhilarated feeling, its 
pitch is higher, its force is greater, and its " movement " 
quicker than that of an utterance, which, as in the preced- 
ing instance, does not go beyond the style of animation or 
liveliness, merely. 

Gayety and vividness of expression are in their proper 
sphere as important to appropriate effect in reading, as any 
of the opposite qualities of seriousness and gravity are in 
theirs. We can never, without these properties of voice, 
give natural expression to many of the most pleasing forms 
of composition, — to such in particular as derive their power 
over sympathy from their presenting to us what the poet 
has termed " the gayest, happiest attitude of things," or 
from the glowing and exhilarating colors in which lan- 
guage sometimes delights to invest the forms of thought. 
Dramatic scenes, sketches of life and manners, vivid delin- 
eations of character, all demand the utterance of exhila- 
rated emotion. Unaided by the effect of such expression, 
the finest compositions fall flat and dead upon the ear, and 
leave our feelings unmoved or disappointed. 

The exercise of brisk and exhilarated utterance should 
be repeatedly practised on the elements, syllables, and 
words contained in the tables, as a means of fixing definitely 
and permanently in the ear the requisite properties of voice. 
A clear and perfectly pure, ringing voice, corresponding to 
what the musician terms " head tone," is the standard of 
practice in this branch of elocution. 



62 ORTHOPHONY. 

1. 

L' Allegro. — Milton. 
Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee 
Jest and youthful Jollity, 
Quips and Cranks, and wanton Wiles, 
Nods and Becks and wreathed Smiles, 
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, 
And love to live in dimple sleek ; 
Sport that wrinkled Care derides, 
And Laughter holding both his sides. 
Come, and trip it, as you go, 
On the light fantastic toe ; 
And in thy right hand lead with thee 
The mountain-nymph, sweet Liberty ; 
And, if I give thee honor due, 
Mirth, admit me of thy crew, 
To live with her, and live with thee, 
In unreproved pleasures free. 
To hear the lark begin his flight, 
And singing startle the dull Night, 
From his watch-tower in the skies, 
Till the dappled Dawn doth rise ; 
Then to come in spite of sorrow, 
And at my window bid good-morrow, 
Through the sweet-brier or the vine, 
Or the twisted eglantine. 

n/ 2. 
Queen Mab. — Drayton, 
She mounts her chariot with a trice, 
Nor would she stay for no advice, 
Until her maids, that were so nice, 

To wait on her were fitted, 
But ran herself away alone ; 



PURE TONE. 63 

Which when they heard, there was not one 
But hasted after to be gone, 
As she had been diswitted. 

Hop, and Mop, and Drap so clear, 
Pip, and Trip, and Skip, that were 
To Mab their sovereign dear, 

Her special maids of honor ; 
Fib, and Tib, and Pinck, and Pin, 
Tick, and Quick, and Jill, and Jin, 
Tit, and Nit, and Wap, and Win, 

The train that wait upon her. 

Upon a grasshopper they got, 

And what with amble and with trot, 

For hedge nor ditch they spared not, 

But after her they hie them. 
A cobweb over them they throw, 
To shield the wind if it should blow, 
Themselves they wisely could bestow, 

Lest any should espy them. 

5. "Humorous," or Playful, Style. 

Perfect purity of tone is indispensable to the utterance of 
fanciful and humorous emotion. The playful and the mirth- 
ful style of utterance seems to be voice let loose from all 
restraints which would impose upon it any rigidness, dry- 
ness, or hardness of sound. 

Humor goes beyond mere gayety or exhilaration, in the 
unbounded scope which it gives to the voice : its tones are 
higher, louder, and quicker in " movement." 

The following exercises should be practised with all the 
playful, half -laughing style of voice which naturally belongs 
to this vivid effusion of blended humor and fancy. The 
practice of the elements, in the same style, in sounds, and 
words, will be of the greatest service for imparting the en- 



64 ORTHOPHONY. 

tire and free command of the appropriate tone of humor ; 
and even a frequent repetition of the act of laughter will be 
found highly useful, as a preparative for this style of ex- 
pression, by suggesting and infusing the perfect purity of 
tone which naturally belongs to hearty and joyous emotion. 

1. 

Mercutio's Description of Queen Mab. — Shakespeare. 
Oh ! then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you. 

She comes 
In shape no bigger than an agate stone 
On the forefinger of an alderman, 
Drawn by a team of little atomies 
Athwart men's noses, as they lie asleep ; 
Her wagon-spokes made of long spinners' legs, 
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers ; 
The traces, of the smallest spider's web, 
The collars, of the moonshine's watery beams : 
Her whip of cricket's bone ; the lash of film ; 
Her wagoner, a small gray-coated gnat ; 
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut, 
Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub, 
Time out of mind the fairies' coachmakers. 
And in this state she gallops, night by night, 
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love, 
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees, 
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream ; 
Sometimes she gallops o'er a courtier's nose, 
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit ; 
And sometimes comes she with a tithe-pig's tail 
Tickling a parson's nose, as 'a lies asleep, 
Then dreams he of another benefice : 
Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, 
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, 
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, 
Of healths five fathom deep : and then anon 



PUEE TONE. 65 

Drums in his ear ; at which he starts and wakes ; 
And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two, 
And sleeps again. 

2. 

Humor and Mirth. 
Jacques, in As You Like It. — Shakespeare. 
A fool, a fool ! I met a fool i' the forest, 
A motley fool ; — a miserable world ; 
As I do live by food, I met a fool ; 
Who laid him down, and basked him in the sun, 
And railed on lady Fortune in good terms, 
In good set terms, and yet a motley fool ! 

3. 

Quiet Humor. 
Vicar of Wakefield. — Goldsmith. 
As we lived near the road, we often had the traveller 
or stranger visit us, to taste our gooseberry-wine, for which 
we had great reputation ; and I profess, with the veracity 
of an historian, that I never knew one of them find fault 
with it. Our cousins, too, even to the fortieth remove, all 
remembered their affinity without any help from the Her- 
ald's Office, and came very frequently to see us. Some of 
them did us no great honor by these claims of kindred; 
as we had the blind, the maimed, and the halt among the 
number. However, my wife always insisted that, as they 
were the same flesh and blood, they should sit with us at 
the same table ; so that if we had not very rich, we gener- 
ally had very happy friends about us ; for this remark will 
hold good through life, that the poorer the guest the better 
pleased he ever is with being treated ; and as some men 
gaze with admiration at the colors of a tulip, or the wing of 
a butterfly, so I was by nature an admirer of happy human 
faces. However, when any one of our relations was found 
5 



66 ORTHOPHONY. 

to be a person of a very bad character, a troublesome guest, 
or one we desired to get rid of, — upon his leaving my 
house, I ever took care to lend him a riding-coat, or a pair 
of boots, or sometimes a horse of small value ; and I al- 
ways had the satisfaction to find he never came back to re- 
turn them. By this the house was cleared of such as we 
did not like ; but never was the family of Wakefield known 
to turn the traveller or the poor dependent out of doors. 



III. " SUSTAINED FORCE. 

Galling. 

A call is the highest and intensest form of " pure tone," 
and, when extended to a vast distance, becomes, it is univer- 
sally known, similar to music in the style of its utterance. 

A high note is required in order to reach to remote dis- 
tance ; and perfect purity of tone is also indispensable, as a 
condition of the easy emission of the prodigious force of 
voice which calling demands, and which, in continuous ef- 
fort, it must sustain. It is the maximum, or highest degree 
of vocal force. But if unaccompanied by perfectly pure 
quality of sound, it pains and injures the organs. Its true 
mode is a long-sustained and exceedingly powerful singing 
tone. In this form its use in strengthening the organs, and 
giving firmness, compactness, and clearness to the voice, is 
very great. 

The student, in practising the call as a vocal exercise, 
must see to it that the utmost purity of tone is kept up, as 
the exercise will otherwise be injurious. The more atten- 
tive he is to sing his words, in such exercises, the more easy 
is the effort, and the more salutary the result. The style 
of utterance in this exercise is that of vigorous, sustained, 
and intense " effusion,'' but should never become abruptly 
" explosive" 

The following example should be practised on the scale 
indicated, not on the stage, but in historical fact, as when 



OROTUND QUALITY. 67 

the herald stood on the plain at such a distance as to be out 
of bow-shot, and called out his message so as to be fully 
audible and distinctly intelligible to the listeners on the 
distant city wall. 

The elementary tables of sounds and words should be 
repeatedly practised, in the form of calling, till the student 
can command a full, clear, ringing, and musical call, or any 
form of sound which admits this function of the voice. 

Example. 

The Herald's Call. — Shakespeare. 

Rejoice, you men of Angiers ! ring your bells : 

King John, your king and England's, doth approach : — 

Open your gates, and give the victors way ! 

Orotund Quality. 

The " orotund quality " is produced by the wide and 
free opening of the mouth, especially the pharynx, — the 
back part of the interior mouth, — and requires full and 
deep inspiration and expiration of the breath, in order to 
assist in opening all the resonant chambers of the chest, 
throat, and head. Purity of sound is also one of its con- 
stituent elements. It is expressive of the utmost depth, 
intensity, and sublimity of emotion, and of the noblest 
moral sentiments. The audible expression of masculine 
force, courage, energy, delight, and admiration depends for 
expression upon this quality. It is the natural voice for 
public speaking "when great interests are at stake and 
strong passions excited " ; and is justly regarded by Dr« 
Rush as the highest perfection of the cultivated utterance 
of the public speaker. 

In forming this quality the fullest resonance of the head, 
throat, and chest voices is heard. In some degrees of feel- 
ing one or another of these resonances may be heard above 
the others, as in reverence, where the chest resonance pre- 



68 ORTHOPHONY. 

dominates, or as in admiration, which is uttered with a fuller 
mingling of the head voice in the sound. 

The property of voice defined by the term " orotund " 
exists, also, in certain physical and mechanical relations of 
the corporeal organs. Thus we hear it in the audible func- 
tions of yawning, coughing, and laughing ; all of which, 
when forcibly performed, are attended with a sudden and 
powerful expansion of the organic parts, and a ringing ful- 
ness, roundness, and smoothness of sound. 

The effect of " effusive orotund " on the voice is identi- 
cal in its quality with the soft, but round and deep tone 
of a prolonged yawn, — a form of voice which comes, ob- 
viously, from the peculiarly wide and free position of the 
organs in that act. Hence arises the suggestion to repeat 
voluntarily the effort of loud and prolonged yawning, and 
watch its peculiar effect on the sound of the voice, and con- 
tinue and prolong the sound in the form of the yawn, till it 
can be executed at pleasure ; and practise, also, upon the 
tables of the elements. 

\J I. " EFFUSIVE OROTUND." 

This designation is applied to that species of utterance 
in which the voice is not sent forth from the organs by any 
obvious voluntary expulsion, but is rather suffered to effuse 
itself from the mouth into the surrounding air. It resem- 
bles the insensible and unconscious act of tranquil breath- 
ing, as contrasted with the effort of panting. " Effusive 
pure tone " is obtained chiefly by skilful withholding of the 
breath, and using the larynx so gently and so skilfully that 
every particle of air passing through it is converted into 
sound. " Effusive orotund " demands a wider opening of 
the organs, and a freer and firmer use of them, so as to 
produce a bolder and rounder tone, with a gentle and sus- 
tained swell of utterance, as contrasted with the " exput 
give " and " explosive " forms of this quality. 









EFFUSIVE OROTUND. 69 

The modes of feeling or emotion which are expressed by 
"effusive orotund voice" are pathos, when mingled with 
grandeur and sublimity, and solemnity and reverence, when 
expressed in similar circumstances. Pathos, divested of 
grandeur, subsides into " pure tone," merely. The same 
result takes place in the utterance of solemnity, if unaccom- 
panied by sublimity. But reverence, always implying grand- 
eur or elevation in its source, is uniformly uttered by the 
" orotund " voice. 

Gray's " Elegy," for example, if read without " orotund," 
becomes feeble and trite in its style ; Milton's " Paradise 
Lost," if so read, becomes dry and flat ; and the language 
of devotion, uttered in the same defective style in prayer, 
or in psalms and hymns, becomes irreverent in its effect. 
The mode of securing the advantages of " orotund " utter- 
ance is, in the first place, to give up the whole soul to the 
feeling of what is read or spoken in the language of grave 
and sublime emotion. The mere superficial impression of 
a sentiment is not adequate to the effects of genuine and 
inspiring expression. 

But few readers seem fully to feel the difference between 
the quiet and passive state, in which we sit and give up our 
imagination to be impressed by the language of. an author, 
and the communicative and active energy requisite, to stamp 
even such an impression on the minds of others. In the 
former case we are but involuntary, or at the most con- 
sentaneous recipients ; in the latter we are the positive and 
voluntary creators of effect. 



y 



EXAMPLES OF " EFFUSIVE OROTUND.' 



1. Pathos and Gloom, or Melancholy, united with 

Grrandeur. 

Ossian's Apostrophe to the Sun. — MacpJierson. 

O thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my 

fathers ! whence are thy beams, O sun ! thy everlasting 



70 OETHOPHONY. 

light ? Thou comest forth in thy awful beauty : the stars 
hide themselves in the sky ; the moon, cold and pale, sinks 
in the western wave. But thou thyself movest alone : who 
can be a companion of thy course ? The oaks of the 
mountains fall ; the mountains themselves decay with years; 
the ocean shrinks and grows again ; the moon herself is lost 
in the heavens ; but thou art forever the same, rejoicing in 
the brightness of thy course. When the world is dark with 
tempests, when thunders roll and lightnings fly, thou look- 
est in thy beauty from the clouds, and laughest at the 
storm. — But to Ossian thou look est in vain ; for he be- 
holds thy beams no more ; whether thy yellow hair floats 
on the eastern clouds, or thou tremblest at the gates of the 
west. But thou art, perhaps, like me, — for a season : thy 
years will have an end. Thou wilt sleep in thy clouds, 
careless of the voice of the morning. 

v 2. Sublimity and Awe. 
Niagara. — Brainard. 
The thoughts are strange that crowd into my brain, 
While I look upward to thee. — It would seem 
As if God poured thee from his " hollow hand," 
And hung his bow upon thine awful front ; 
And spake in that loud voice, which seemed to him 
Who dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake, 
" The sound of many waters ; " and had bid 
Thy flood to chronicle the ages back, 
And notch his centuries in the eternal rock ! 

Deep calleth unto deep ! — And what are we, 
That hear the question of that voice sublime ? 
Oh ! what are all the notes that ever rang 
From war's vain trumpet, by thy thundering side ? 
Yea, what is all the riot man can make, 
In his short life to thy unceasing roar ? 
And yet, bold babbler, what art thou to Him 



EFFUSIVE OROTUND. 71 

Who drowned a world, and heaped the waters far 
Above its loftiest mountains ? — a light wave, 
That breaks, and whispers of its Maker's might ! 

^ 3. Pathos and Sublimity. 
Rome. — Byron. 
O Rome ! my country ! city of the soul ! 
The orphans of the heart must turn to thee, 
Lone mother of dead empires ! and control 
In their shut breasts, their petty misery. 
What are our woes and sufferance ? — Come and see 
The cypress, hear the owl, and plod your way 
O'er steps of broken thrones and temples, Ye ! 
Whose agonies are evils of a day : — 
A world is at our teet as fragile as our clay. 

The Niobe of nations ! there she stands, 
Childless and crownless, in her voiceless woe ; 
An empty urn within her withered hands, 
Whose holy dust was scattered long ago ; — 
The Scipios' tomb contains no ashes now ; 
The very sepulchres lie tenantless 
Of their heroic dwellers : — dost thou flow, 
Old Tiber ! through a marble wilderness ? 
Rise, with thy yellow waves, and mantle her distress ! 

4. Solemnity and Sublimity combined. 
Milton's Invocation of Light. 
Hail ! holy Light, — offspring of Heaven, first-born, 
Or of the Eternal coeternal beam 
May I express thee unblamed? since God is light, 
And never but in unapproached light, 
Dwelt from eternity, — dwelt then in thee, 
Bright effluence of bright Essence increate ! 
Or hear'st thou, rather, pure ethereal stream, 



72 ORTHOPHONY. 

Whose fountain who shall tell ? — Before the sun, 
Before the heavens thou wert, and, at the voice 
Of God, as with a mantle did'st invest 
The rising world of waters, dark and deep, 
Won from the void and formless infinite. 



II. "EXPULSIVE OROTUND. 

For description of expulsive utterance, see page 41. 

" Expulsive orotund " belongs appropriately to earnest or 
vehement declamation, to impassioned and poetic excitement 
of emotion, and consequently to whatever language is ut- 
tered in the form of shouting. It arises from the forcible 
action of the abdominal muscles, added to a full expansion 
of the chest, and deep inspiration. 

The first-mentioned of these styles, — the declamatory, is 
exemplified in public address or debate, on exciting occa- 
sions. The second is heard in the utterance of the lighter 
degrees of passion. 

The third form of " expulsive orotund " is the impas- 
sioned and the voluntary burst of emotion, which transcends 
the customary forms and effects of speech, and, in the spirit 
of enthusiastic excitement, utters itself in shouts and excla- 
mations. 

The forcible and manly eloquence of Demosthenes, or of 
Chatham, divested of the full " expulsive " utterance of 
deep and powerful emotion, would become ridiculous in its 
effect on the ear and the imagination. The same would be 
true of the style of our own eminent countryman, Webster. 
Depth, weight, and fulness of tone formed a powerful ef- 
fect in all his utterance on great and exciting occasions, in 
marked contrast with his impassive and almost apathetic ut- 
terance when not aroused by interest or feeling. 

To form the voice to the extent of the full property of 
" expulsive orotund," care should be taken to maintain a 
perfectly erect attitude of body, the chest fully expanded 



EXPULSIVE OROTUND. 73 

and projected, and the shoulders depressed, — to maintain, 
also, a vigorous play of the abdominal muscles, and to prac- 
tise the organic act of prolonged coughing, in a moderate 
form, which is the natural mechanical function most nearly 
resembling " expulsive orotund." The elements of the lan- 
guage should be practised in a similar style ; and to these 
exercises should be added the repeated and energetic prac- 
tice of the following examples. 

Practice on the " crying " voice, or weeping utterance of 
sorrow, is another expedient for rendering nature's processes 
conducive to culture ; the act of crying being, in its mech- 
anism, a perfect " expulsive orotund." 

» EXAMPLES OF " EXPULSIVE OROTUND." 

1. " Declamatory " Style. 
Webster's Speech of John Adams. 

Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my 
hand and my heart to this vote ! 

Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judg- 
ment approves this measure ; and my whole heart is in it. 
All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in 
this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it ; and I leave 
off, as I began, that, live or die, survive or perish, I am for 
the declaration. It is my living sentiment ; and, by the 
blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment : — inde- 
pendence now and independence forever ! 

2. Oratorical Invective. 

V Against Warren Hastings. — BurJce. 

By the order of the House of Commons of Great Brit- 
ain, I impeach Warren Hastings of high crimes and misde- 
meanors. 

I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great 
Britain in Parliament assembled, whose parliamentary trust 
he has abused. 



74 ORTHOPHONY. 

I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great 
Britain, whose national character he has dishonored. 

I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose 
laws, rights, and liberties he has subverted. 

I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose 

property he has destroyed, whose country he has laid waste 

and desolate. 

, I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, 

which he has cruelly outraged, injured, and oppressed, in 

both sexes. And I impeach him in the name and by the 

virtue of those eternal laws of justice, which ought equally 

to pervade every age, condition, rank, and situation, in the 

world. ^ 

Hotspur. — Shakespeare. 

Send danger from the east unto the west, 

So honor cross it from the north to south, 

And let them grapple. — Oh ! the blood more stirs, 

To rouse a lion, than to start a hare. 

By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap, 
To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon ; 
Or dive into the bottom of the deep, 
Where fathom-line could never touch the ground, 
And pluck up drowned honor by the locks ; 
So he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear, 
Without corrival, all her dignities. 
But out upon this half-faced fellowship ! 

3. " Impassioned " Poetic Style. 
Carey's Ode on Eloquence. 
Where rests the sword ? — where sleep the brave ? 
Awake ! Cecropia's ally save 

From the fury of the blast ! 
Burst the storm on Phocis' walls, — 
Rise ! or Greece forever falls ; 

Up ! or Freedom breathes her last ! 



EXPULSIVE OROTUND. 75 

4. u Impassioned Expression." — Poetic Invective : 
Epic Style. 

Moloch's Address. — Milton. 

My sentence is for open war : of wiles, 
More unexpert, I boast not : them let those 
Contrive who need, or when they need, — not now. 
For, while they sit contriving, shall the rest, 
Millions that stand in arms, and, longing, wait 
The signal to ascend, sit lingering here, 
Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place 
Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame, 
The prison of his tyranny who reigns 
By our delay ? No ! let us rather choose, 
Armed with hell flames and fury, all at once 
O'er heaven's high towers to force resistless way, 
Turning our tortures into horrid arms 
Against the Torturer ; when, to meet the noise 
Of his almighty engine, he shall hear 
Infernal thunder, and, for lightning, see 
Black fire and horror shot, with equal rage, 
Among his angels, and his throne itself 
Mixed with Tartarean sulphur and strange fire, — 
His own invented torments. 



v/< 



5. Ecstatic Joy. 

William Tell, to the Mountains on regaining his Liberty. 

J. S. Knowles. 

Ye crags and peaks, I 'm with you once again ! 
I hold to you the hands you first beheld, 
To show they still are free. 

Ye guards of liberty, 
I 'm with you, once again ! I call to you 
With all my voice ! — I hold my hands to you 
To show they still are free ! 



76 ORTHOPHONY. 

\ III. "explosive orotund." 

The " explosive " form of the " orotund " utterance bears 
the same relation to " effusive " and " expulsive orotund " 
that " explosion " in breathing, or whispering, bears to " ef- 
fusion " and " expulsion " in those forms. It implies an in- 
stantaneous burst of voice with a quick, clear, sharp, and 
cutting effect on the ear. See Modes of Utterance, p. 40. 

This mode of voice proceeds from a violent and abrupt 
exertion of the abdominal muscles, acting on the diaphragm, 
and thus discharging a large volume of air previously in- 
haled. The breath, in this process, is as it were dashed 
against the glottis or lips of the larynx, causing a loud and 
instantaneous explosion. 

" Explosive orotund " is the language of intense passion ; 
it is heard when the violence of emotion is beyond the con- 
trol of the will, and a sudden ecstasy of terror, anger, or any 
other form of intensely excited feeling, causes the voice to 
bur^t forth involuntarily from the organs, with a sudden and 
startling effect. It exists only in the extremes of abrupt 
emotion, as in the burst of anger, or the shout of courage, 
and admits of no gradations. 

This form of the human voice is one of the most impres- 
sive in its effect. By a law of our constitution it acts with 
an instantaneous shock on the sympathetic nerve, and rouses 
the sensibility of the whole frame ; it summons to instant 
action all the senses ; and in the thrill which it sends from 
nerve to brain, we feel its awakening and inciting power 
over the mind. With the rapidity of lightning it penetrates 
every faculty and sets it instinctively on the alert. 

We hear the " explosive orotund quality " exemplified in 
the sudden alarm of fire, in the short and sharp cry of 
terror or of warning, at the approach of instant and great 
danger, in the eruptive curse of furious anger, in the abrupt 
exclamation of high-wrought courage, and in the burst of 
frantic grief. In reading and recitation, it belongs appro« 



EXPLOSIVE OROTUND. 77 

priately to the highest ecstatic effects of lyric and dramatic poe- 
try, as the language of intense passion. 

To gain the full command of " explosive orotund " voice, 
the practice of the elements, of syllables and words, in the 
tones of anger and terror, should be frequently repeated, 
along with the following and similar examples. The me- 
chanical and moderate practice of the acts of coughing and 
laughing is one of the most efficacious modes of imparting 
to the organs the power of instantaneous " explosion." 

Like all other powerful forms of exertion, it should not, at 
first, be carried very far ; neither should it be practised with- 
out a due interspersing of the gentler and softer exercises 
of voice. Pursued exclusively, it would harden the voice, 
and render it dry and unpleasing in its quality. Intermin- 
gled with the other modes of practice, it secures thorough- 
going force and clearness of voice, and permanent vigor and 
elasticity of organs. 

EXAMPLES OF "EXPLOSIVE OROTUND." 
1 . Courage. 

("Explosive" Shouting.) 

BOZZARIS TO HIS BAND OF SULIOTES. — HalUck. 

Strike till the last armed foe expires ! 
Strike for your altars and your fires ! 
Strike for the green graves of your sires, 
God and your native land ! 

2. Scorn and Defiance. 

Paradise Lost. — Milton. 

Satan (to Death). Whence and what art thou, execrable 
shape ! 
That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance 
Thy miscreated front athwart my way 
To yonder gates ? Through them I mean to pass, — 
That be assured, — without leave asked of thee : 



T8 ORTHOPHONY. 

Retire ! or taste thy folly ; and learn by proof, 
Hell-born ! not to contend with spirits of hearen. 

Wrath and Threatening. 

Death (in reply). Back to thy punishment, 
False fugitive ! and to thy speed add wings ; 
Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue 
Thy lingering, or, with one stroke of this dart, 
Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before ! 

8. Infuriate Anger. 

The Doge of Venice, on the eve of his execution, in the con. 
cluding words of his curse on the city. — Byron's Marino Fa- 
lter i. 

Thou den of drunkards with the blood of princes ! 

Gehenna of the waters ! thou sea Sodom ! 

Thus I devote thee to the infernal gods ! 

Thee and thy serpent seed ! 

( To the executioner.) Slave, do thine office ! 

Strike as I struck the foe ! Strike as I would 

Have struck those tyrants ! Strike deep as my curse J 

Strike — and but once ! 

v / 4. Anger. 

Antony, to the conspirators. — Shakespeare. 

Villains ! you did not threat, when your vile daggers 

Hacked one another in the sides of Caesar ! 

You showed your teeth like apes, and fawned like hounds, 

And bowed like bondmen, kissing Caesar's feet ; 

Whilst damned Casca, like a cur, behind, 

Struck Caesar on the neck. — Oh ! flatterers ! 

Aspirated and Pectoral Quality. 

The emotions which are naturally expressed by the 
strongest form of " aspirated quality " are principally of 
that class which an eminent writer on the passions has de« 



ASPIRATED AND PECTORAL QUALITY. 79 

nominated " malignant," from their peculiar character and 
effect, as contrasted with those of others which he denom- 
inates " genial." The former class includes fear, hatred, 
aversion, horror, anger, and all similar feelings ; the latter, 
love, joy, serenity, tenderness, pity, etc. 

PECTORAL QUALITY. 

The resonance in " pectoral quality " is confined to the 
chest. Like all other vocal sounds it is vocalized in the 
larynx, but is made to vibrate entirely in the chest. In its 
purity of sound it is confined to low notes, but when aspi- 
rated may be forced to a high pitch. It is used in the 
expression of gloom, despair (not frenzied), awe, deep 
solemnity, profoundest reverence, etc. 

The "aspirated quality," in the "pectoral" form, belongs 
usually to despair, deep-seated anger, revenge, excessive fear, 
horror, and other deep and powerful emotions. 

Other emotions, however, besides those which may be 
designated as " malignant," partake of " aspirated quality." 
Awe may be mentioned as an example, which, when pro- 
found, is always marked by a slight aspiration and a " pec- 
toral quality." Joy and grief too, become " aspirated " 
when highly characterized. Ardor and intense earnestness 
of emotion are always " aspirated." The fervent expres- 
sion of love, and even of devotion, admits, accordingly, of 
" aspirated " utterance. " Aspiration," like " tremor," thus 
becomes a natural sign of extremes in feeling ; and these 
two properties united, form the acme or highest point of 
" expression." 

The " aspirated quality," in the " guttural " form, be- 
longs in various degrees to all malignant emotions. In its 
stronger expression it gives a harsh, animal, and sometimes 
even fiend-like character to human utterance, as in the mal- 
ice and revenge of Shylock. In a reduced, though still 
highly impassioned degree, it gives its peculiar choking 
effect to the utterance of anger. 



80 ORTHOPHONY. 

In the yell of rage and fury " aspiration " is displaced by 
perfectly " pure tone " of the loudest sound, — by a law of 
man's organization, which it is unnecessary here to analyze, 
but which seems to make all the extremes, or utmost 
reaches of human feeling, musical in their effect. Joy and 
the extremes of both grief and anger may be mentioned as 
illustrations. 

Aversion, disgust, displeasure, impatience, dissatisfaction, 
and discontent, all, in various degrees, combine " aspirated " 
utterance and " guttural quality." 

It will be of great service to power of " expression," to 
render the command of " aspiration " easy by frequent rep- 
etition on elements, syllables, and words, selected for tha 
purpose. 

I. " EFFUSIVE " UTTERANCE. 

1. Gloom. 

Shipwreck. — Wilson. 

Now is the ocean's bosom bare, 

Unbroken as the floating air ; 

The ship hath melted quite away, 

Like a struggling dream at break of day. 

No image meets my wandering eye, 

But the new-risen sun and the sunny sky. 

Though the night-shades are gone, yet a vapor dull 

Bedims the waves so beautiful ; 

While a low and melancholy moan 

Mourns for the glory that hath flown. 



y 



/ 

V t 



2. Despair and Melancholy. 
he Ancient Mariner. — Coleridge. 
Alone, alone, all, all alone, 
Alone on a wide, wide sea ! 
And never a saint took pity on 
My soul in agony. 



ASPIRATED AND PECTORAL QUALITY. 81 

3. Horror and Awe. 

Ghost, to Hamlet. — Shakespeare. 

I am thy father's spirit, 
Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night, 
And for the day confined to fast in fires, 
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature 
Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid 
To tell the secrets of my prison-house, 
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word 
Would harrow up thy soul ; freeze thy young blood ; 
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres 5 
Thy knotted and combined locks to part, 
And each particular hair to stand on end, 
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine : 
But this eternal blazon must not be 
To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O list ! 
If thou didst ever thy dear father love. 



4. Horror and Fear : the effect transcending that of aw$i 
the " aspiration " nearly a whisper. 

Macbeth, meditating the murder of Duncan. — Shakespeare. 

v Now o'er the one half world 
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse 
The curtain'd sleep ; now witchcraft celebrates 
Pale Hecate's offerings ; and wither'd murder, 
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, 
Whose howl 's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, 
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design 
Moves like a ghost. — Thou sure and firm-set earth ! 
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear 
The very stones prate of my whereabout, 
And take the present horror from the time, 
Which now suits with it. 






82 ORTHOPHONY. 



II. "EXPULSIVE UTTERANCE. 

1. Horror and Amazement : "aspiration " increased by 
" expulsion." 

Hamlet, to ti^e Ghost of his Father. — Shakespeare. 

^ What may this mean, 
That thou, dead corse, again, in complete steel 
Eevisitest thus the glimpses of the moon, 
Making night hideous ; and we fools of nature 
So horridly to shake our disposition 
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls ? 

2. Fear and Awe. 
• The Mourning Bride. — Johnson. 

Almeria. It was a fanciful noise, for all is hush'd. 

Leonora. It bore the accent of a human voice. 

Almeria. It was thy fear ; or else some transient wind 
Whistling through hollows of this vaulted aisle. 
We '11 listen ! — 

Leonora. Hark ! 

Almeria. No! All is hushed and still as death. 'Tis 
dreadful ! 
How reverend is the face of this tall pile, 
Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads 
To bear aloft its arch'd and ponderous roof, 
Looking tranquillity. It strikes an awe 
And terror on my aching sight. The tombs 
And monumental caves of death look cold, 
And shoot a chillness to my trembling heart. 
Give me thy hand, and let me hear thy voice. 
Nay, quickly speak to me, and let me hear — 
My own affrights me with its echoes. 



ASPIRATED AND PECTORAL QUALITY. 83 

\ 

3. Fear. 

("WTuspering Voice: "Guttural Quality.") 

Caliban, conducting Stephano and Trinculo to the cell op 

Prospero. — Shakespeare. 

Pray you tread softly, — that the blind mole may not 
Hear a foot fall : we are now near his cell. 

Speak softly ! 
All 's hushed as midnight yet. 

See'st thou here ? 
This is the mouth o' the cell : no noise ! and enter. 



in. "explosive utterance. 

("Guttural and Pectoral Quality.") 

1. Hatred. 

Shylock, regarding Antonio. 
How like a fawning publican he looks ! 
I hate him for he is a Christian ; 
But more, for that, in low simplicity 
He lends out money gratis, and brings down 
The rate of usance here with us in Venice. 
If I can catch him once upon the hip, 
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him ! 
He hates our sacred nation ; and he rails, 
Even there where merchants most do congregate, 
On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift, 
Which he calls interest. Cursed be my tribe, 
If I forgive him! 

2. Hatred. 
Shylock/ to Antonio. — Shakespeare. 

Signior Antonio, many a time and oft, 
In the Rialto, you have rated me 
About my moneys and my usances ; 
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug ; 



84 ORTHOPHONY. 

For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe. 
You call me — misbeliever, cut-throat, dog, 
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine, 
And all for use of that which is mine own. 
Well then, it now appears, you need my help : 
Go to then ; you come to me, and you say, 
" Shylock, we would have moneys:" you say so % 
You, that did void your rheum upon my beard, 
And foot me, as you spurn a stranger cur 
Over your threshold : moneys is your suit. 
What should I say to you ? Should I not say, 
" Hath a dog money ? Is it possible 
A cur can lend three thousand ducats ? " Or 
Shall I bend low, and in a bondman's key, 
With bated breath and whisp'ring humbleness, 
Say this : 

" Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last ; 
You spurn'd me such a day ; another time 
You call'd me dog ; and for these courtesies 
I '11 lend you thus much moneys." 

J 3. Horror, Terror, and Alarm. 
Macbeth, to the Ghost of Banquo. — Shakespeare. 
Avaunt ! and quit my sight ! Let the earth hide thee ! 
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood: is cold ! 
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes 
Which thou dost glare with ! 

Hence, horrible shadow ! 
Unreal mockery, hence ! 

J 4. Revenge. 

("Guttural, Aspirated, and Pectoral Quality.") 

Shylock, referring to the pound of flesh, the penalty at- 
tached to Antonio's bond. — Shakespeare. 

If it will feed nothing else it will feed my revenge. 
He hath disgraced me, and hindered me of half a million ; 



FORCE. 85 

laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my na- 
tion, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated my 
enemies. And what 's his reason ? I am a Jew ! Hath not a 
Jew eyes ? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, 
senses, affections, passions ? Is he not fed with the same 
food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same dis- 
eases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the 
same summer and winter, as a Christian is ? If you stab 
us, do we not bleed ? If you tickle us, do we not laugh ? 
If you poison us, do we not die ? And if you wrong us, 
shall we not revenge ? If we are like you in the rest, we 
will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, 
what is his humility ? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a 
Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example ? 
Why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I will execute ; 
and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction. 



CHAPTER Y. 

FORCE. 



A primary characteristic of utterance, as expressive of 
emotion, is the degree of its energy or force. The effect of 
any feeling on sympathy is naturally inferred from the de- 
gree of force with which the sound of the voice, in the utter- 
ance of that feeling, falls upon the ear of the hearer. The 
cause of this impression upon the mind is obviously the 
law of organic sympathy, by which one part of the human 
frame naturally responds to another. A powerful emotion 
not only affects the heart and the lungs, and the other invol- 
untary agents of life and of expression, but starts the ex- 
pulsory muscles into voluntary action, and produces voice, 
the natural indication and language of feeling. The degree 
of force, therefore, in a vocal sound, is intuitively taken as 



86 ORTHOPHONY. 

the measure of the emotion which causes it. Except only 
those cases in which the force of feeling paralyzes as it 
were the organs of the voice, and suggests the opposite 
measure of inference, by which a choked and struggling ut- 
terance, a suppressed or inarticulate voice, or even absolute 
silence, becomes the index to the heart. 

The command of all degrees of force of voice must evi- 
dently be essential to true and natural expression, whether 
in reading or speaking. Appropriate utterance ranges 
through all stages of vocal sound, from the whisper of fear 
and the murmur of repose to the boldest swell of vehe- 
ment declamation and the shout of triumphant courage. 
But to give forth any one of these or the intermediate 
tones with just and impressive effect, the organs must be 
disciplined by appropriate exercise and frequent practice. 

The want of due training for the exercise of public readV 
ing or speaking, is evinced in the habitual undue loudness of 
some speakers and the inadequate force of others. 

Force of utterance, however, has other claims on the at- 
tention of students of elocution besides those which are in- 
volved in correct expression. It is, in its various gradations, 
the chief means of imparting strength to the vocal organs, 
and power to the voice itself. The due practice of exer- 
cises in force of utterance does for the voice what athletic 
exercise does for the muscles of the body ; it imparts the 
two great conditions of power, vigor and pliancy. 

It is a matter of great moment, in practising the exercise 
in force, to observe at first with the utmost strictness, ilt 
rule of commencing with the slightest and advancing to the 
most energetic forms of utterance. When practice has im- 
parted due vigor and facility, it will be a useful variation of 
order to commence with the more powerful exertions of the 
voice and descend to the more gentle. It is a valuable at- 
tainment, also, to be able to strike at once, and with perfect 
ease and precision, into any degree of force, from whisper* 
ing to shouting. 



FORCE. 87 

The perfect command of every degree of force, and an 
exact discrimination of its stages, as classified by degree and 
character of emotion, are indispensable to correct and im- 
pressive elocution. Extensive and varied practice on force, 
in all its gradations, becomes therefore an important point 
in the vocal culture connected with elocution. For drill ex- 
ercises repeat tables of Elements in the musical gradations 
of " pianissimo " (very soft), " piano " (soft), " mezzo pi- 
ano " (moderately soft), "mezzo" (moderate), "mezzo 
forte" (moderately loud), "forte" (loud), and "fortis- 
simo " (very loud), in successive stages, commencing with 
the slightest and most delicate sound that can be uttered in 
"pure tone," and extending to the most vehement force of 
shouting and calling in the open air and with all the power 
that the voice can yield. 

Persons who practise such exercises several times a day, 1 
for ten or fifteen minutes at a time, will find a daily gain in 
vocal power and organic vigor to be the invariable result : 
every day will enable them to add a degree to their scale of 
force. 

The kind of exercise now recommended, if presented in a 
form addressed to the eye, might be marked thus : — 

• •#••••• o 

Each dot represents in this scale, one and the same sound, 

1 It may not be improper to remark here, that vocal exercise should be 
practised at a point of time as nearly as may be intermediate to the hours 
assigned for meals; as the organs are then in their best condition, — 
neither embarrassed nor exhausted, as regards the state of the circulation. 
The rule of the Italian vocal training, which prescribes powerful and con- 
tinued exertion of voice, before breakfast, with a view to deepen the " reg- 
ister," implies a state of organs already inured to fatigue ; and the stereo- 
type direction of the old physicians, to declaim after dinner, with a view to 
promote digestion, implies either a meal in the poet's style of "spare fast, 
that oft with gods doth diet," or a strength of the digestive organ that can 
render it callous to the powerful shocks which energetic declamation always 
\mparts by impassioned emotion to that chief "local habitation" of the 

"sympathetic " nerve. 



88 ORTHOPHONY. 

er word, repeated with a gradually increasing force. The 
repetition of the same sound, for at least a dozen times, is 
preferred to a change of elements, because by repetition 
the ear becomes as it were a more exact judge of the suc- 
cessive degrees of force, when not distracted by attention 
to anything else than the one point of mere loudness. 



EXERCISES IN FORCE. 
I. " SUPPRESSED " FORCE. 1 

Whispering. 

(" Effusive " Utterance.) 

Pathos. 

Dying Request. — Mrs. Hemans. 

Leave me ! thy footstep with its lightest sound, 

The very shadow of thy waving hair, 
Wakes in my soul a feeling too profound, 

Too strong for aught that lives and dies, to bear — 
Oh ! bid the conflict cease ! 

(" Expulsive " Utterance.) 

Rapture. 

The Dying Christian. — Pope. 

Hark ! they whisper, — angels say, 
" Sister spirit ! come away ! " 

l "Suppressed" force is not limited exclusively to the forms of the whis- 
per, or the half-whisper. Still, it is usually found in one or other of these ; 
and, on this account, although sometimes intensely earnest and energetic in 
the expression of feeling, it is a gradation of utterance which, in point of 
" vocality," ranks below even the " moderate " and " subdued " forms of 
"pure tone." We regard, at present, its value in vocal force, — not i| 
u expression." 



FORCE. 89 

(" Explosive " Utterance.) 
Terror. 
Lines on the Eve op Waterloo. — Byron. 
The foe ! they come, they come ! 

Effusive Half-whisper. 

Awe and Tenderness. 

Evening Prayer at a Girl's School. — Mrs. Eemans. 

Hush ! *t is a holy hour : — the quiet room 

Seems like a temple, while yon soft lamp sheds 

A faint and starry radiance through the gloom 

And the sweet stillness, down on young bright heads, 

With all their clustering locks, untouched by care, 

And bowed — as flowers are bowed with night — in 
prayer, 



/ 



Expulsive Half-whisper. 

Horror. 
Eugene Aram. — Hood. 

Down went the corse with a hollow plunge, 

And vanished in the pool ; 
Anon I cleansed my bloody hands, 

And washed my forehead cool, 
And sat among the urchins young 

That evening, in the school. 

Explosive Half-whisper. 

Frenzied Fear. 

Ancient Mariner. — Coleridge. 

About, about, in reel and rout, 
The death-fires danced at night ; 



90 ORTHOPHONY. 

The water, like a witch's oils, 
Burnt green and blue, and white. 

And every tongue, through utter drought, 
Was withered at the root ; 
We could not speak, no more than if 
We had been choked with soot. 



II. " SUBDUED " FORCE. 

("Pure Tone : " " Effusive ' ' Utterance. ) 

1. Tranquillity. 

Night. — Montgomery. 

Behold the bed of death, — 

This pale and lovely clay ! 
Heard ye the sob of parting breath ? 

Marked ye the eye's last ray ? 
No ; — life so sweetly ceased to be, 
It lapsed in immortality. 

2. Profound Repose, 
Evening in a Grave- yard — Bailey. 

I Ve seen the moon climb the mountain's brow, 
I 've watched the mists o'er the river stealing ; 

But ne'er did I feel in my breast, till now, 
So deep, so calm, and so holy a feeling : 

'T is soft as the thrill which memory throws 

Athwart the soul in the hour of repose. 

Thou Father of all ! in the worlds of light, 
Fain would my spirit aspire to Thee ; 

And, through the scenes of this gentle night, 
Behold the dawn of eternity : 

For this is the path which Thou hast given, 

The only path to the bliss of heaven. 



FORCE. 91 

3. Tenderness. 
To an Infant. — Coleridge. 
Poor stumbler on the rocky coast of woe, 
Tutored by pain each source of pain to know ! 
Alike the foodful fruit and scorching fire 
Awake thy eager grasp and young desire ; 
Alike the good, the ill, offend thy sight, 
A^nd rouse the stormy sense of shrill affright. 
Untaught, yet wise ! mid all thy brief alarms 
Thou closely clingest to thy mother's arms, 
Nestling thy little face in that fond breast 
Whose anxious heavings lull thee to thy rest ! 

( ' ' Orotund Quality : " " Effusive ' ' Utterance. ) 
1. Pathos and Sublimity. 
* Wolsey, on his downfall. — Shakespeare. 
Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness ! 
This is the state of man : To-day he puts forth 
The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, 
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him : 
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost ; 
And — when he thinks, good easy man, full surely 
His greatness is a ripening — nips his root ; 
And then he falls as I do. I have ventured, — 
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, — 
This many summers, in a sea of glory, 
But far beyond my depth : my high-blown pride 
At length broke under me, and now has left me 
Weary and old with service, to the mercy 
Of a rude stream that must forever hide me ! 

2. Reverence. 
The Hymn of the Seasons. — Thomson. 
These, as they change, Almighty Father ! these 
Are but the varied God. The rolling year 



92 ORTHOPHONY. 
Is full of Thee. 



And oft Thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks ; 
And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve, 
By brooks and groves, in hollow-whispering gales. — 
In Winter, awful Thou ! with clouds and storms 
Around Thee thrown, tempest o'er tempest rolled, — 
Majestic darkness ! On the whirlwind's wing, 
Riding sublime, Thou bidd'st the world adore, 
And humblest Nature, with Thy northern blast. 

in. "moderate" force. 

("Pure Tone: " "Expulsive" Utterance.) 

" Grave 11 Style. 

Undue Indulgence. — Alison. 

The inordinate love of pleasure is equally fatal to hap- 
piness as to virtue. To the wise and virtuous, to those who 
use the pleasures of life only as a temporary relaxation, as 
a resting-place to animate them on the great journey on 
which they are travelling, the hours of amusement bring 
real pleasure : to them the well of joy is ever full ; while 
to those who linger by its side, its waters are soon dried and 
exhausted. 

I speak not now of those bitter waters which must min- 
gle themselves with the well of unhallowed pleasure, — of 
the secret reproaches of accusing conscience, — of the sad 
sense of shame and dishonor, — and of that degraded spirit, 
which must bend itself beneath the scorn of the world : I 
speak only of the simple and natural effect of unwise in- 
dulgence ; that it renders the mind callous to enjoyment ; 
and that even though the " fountain were full of water," 
the feverish lip is incapable of satiating its thirst. Alas ! 
here, too, we may see the examples of human folly: we 
may see around us, everywhere, the fatal effects of unre- 
strained pleasure ; the young, sickening in the midst of 
every pure and genuine enjoyment ; the mature, hastening 



FORGE. 93 

with hopeless step, to fill up the hours of a vitiated being ; 
and, what is still more wretched, the hoary head wandering 
in the way of folly, and with an unhallowed dotage, return- 
ing again to the trifles and the amusements of childhood. 

" Serious " Style. 
Influence of Learning. — Moodie. 

If learned men are to be esteemed for the assistance 
they give to active minds in their schemes, they are not less 
to be valued for their endeavors to give them a right di- 
rection, and moderate their too great ardor. The study of 
history will teach the legislator by what means states have 
become powerful ; and in the private citizen it will inculcate 
the love of liberty and order. The writings of sages point 
out a private path of virtue, and show that the best empire 
is self-government, and that subduing our passions is the 
noblest of conquests. 



/ 



" Animated" or IAvely, Style. 

Cheerfulness. 

As Tou Like It. — Shakespeare. 



Duke Senior. Now, my co-mates, and brothers in exile, 
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet , 

Than that of painted pomp ? Are not these woods 
More free from peril than the envious court ? 
Here feel we not the penalty of Adam, 
The seasons' difference ; as the icy fang, 
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind, 
Which when it bites and blows upon my body, 
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say, — 
This is no flattery ; these are counsellors, 
That feelingly persuade me what I am. 
Sweet are the uses of adversity ; 
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 



94 ORTHOPHONY. 

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head ; 
And this our life, exempt from public haunt, 
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in everything. 

" Gay" or Brisk, Style. 
Habits of Expression. — Spectator. 
Next to those whose elocution is absorbed in action, 
and who converse chiefly with their arms and legs, we may 
consider the professed speakers, — and, first, the emphatical, 
— who squeeze and press and ram down every syllable with 
excessive vehemence and energy. These orators are re- 
markable for their distinct elocution and force of expres- 
sion : they dwell on the important particles of and the, and 
the significant conjunction and, — which they seem to 
hawk up, with much difficulty, out of their own throats, 
and to cram, — with no less pain, — into the ears of their 
auditors. These should be suffered only to syringe (as it 
were) the ears of a deaf man, through a hearing trumpet ; 
though I must confess that I am equally offended with the 
whisperers, or low speakers, who seem to fancy all their ac- 
quaintance deaf, and come up so close to you that they 
may be said to measure noses with you. I would have 
these oracular gentry obliged to talk at a distance, through 
a speaking trumpet, or apply their lips to the walls of a 
whispering gallery. The wits, who will not condescend to 
utter anything but a bon mot, and the whistlers, or tune- 
hummers, who never talk at all, may be joined very agreea- 
bly together in a concert ; and to these " tinkling cymbals " 
I would also add the " sounding brass," the bawler, who 
inquires after your health with the bellowing of a town« 
crier. 

" Humorous " Style. 

The Critic. — Sterne. 
" And what of this new book the whole world makes 
Buch a noise about ?" " Oh ! 't is out of all plumb, my 



J 



»-) 



FORCE. 95 

lord, — quite an irregular thing ! — not one of the angles at 
the four corners was a right angle. I had my rule and 
compasses, my lord, in my pocket ! " " Excellent critic ! " 
" And for the epic poem your lordship bid me look at — 
upon taking the length, breadth, height, and depth of it, and 
trying them at home upon an exact scale of Bossu's — 't is 
out, my lord, in every one of its dimensions." " Admira- 
ble connoisseur ! And did you step in to take a look at 
the great picture, on your way back ? " " 'T is a melan- 
choly daub, my lord ! — not one principle of the i pyramid/ 
in any one group ! — and what a price ! — for there is noth- 
ing of the coloring of Titian, — the expression of Eubens, 
— the grace of Raphael, — the purity of Domenichino, — 
the corregiescity of Corregio, — the learning of Poussin, — 
the airs of Guido, — the taste of Caracci, — or the grand 
contour of Angelo ! " 

IV. " DECLAMATORY " FORCE. 
V 

The American Union. — Webster. 

While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratify- 
ing prospects spread out before us, for us and for our chil- 
dren. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God 
grant that, in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise I 
God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies 
behind. When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the 
last time, the sun in the heaven, may I not see him shining 
on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious 
Union ; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; on 
a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fra- 
ternal blood ! Let their last feeble and lingering glance 
rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now 
known and honored throughout the earth, still " full high 
advanced," — its arms and trophies streaming in their 
original lustre, — not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a sin- 
gle star obscured ; bearing, for its motto, no such misera- 



/ 



96 ORTHOPHONY. 

ble interrogatory as, " What is all this worth ? " nor those 
other words of delusion and folly, " Liberty first, and Union 
afterwards," — but everywhere, spread all over, in characters 
of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float 
over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under 
the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true 
American heart, — " Liberty and Union, now and forever, 
one and inseparable ! " 

\J V. " IMPASSIONED " FORCE. 
(" Aspirated Pectoral " and "Explosive Orotund.") 
Imprecation and Wrath. 
The Cukse of Marino Faliero. —Byron. 
Ye elements ! in which to be resolved 
I hasten, let my voice be as a spirit 
Upon you ! — Ye blue waves ! which bore my banner, 
Ye winds ! which fluttered o'er as if ye loved it, 
And filled my swelling sails, as they were wafted 
To many a triumph ! Thou, my native earth, 
Which I have bled for ! and thou foreign earth, 
Which drank this willing blood from many a wound ! 
Ye stones, in which my gore will not sink, but 
Reek up to heaven ! Ye skies, which will receive it ! 
Thou sun ! which shinest on these things, and Thou I 
Who kindlest and who quenchest suns ! — attest ! 
I am not innocent, but are these guiltless ? 
I perish, but not unavenged ; far ages 
Float up from the abyss of time to be, 
And show these eyes, before they close, the doom 
Of this proud city ; and I leave my curse 
On her and hers forever. 



FORCE. 97 

VI. SHOUTING. 

("Expulsive Orotund:" Intense Force.) 

RlENZI, TO THE CONSPIRATORS. — ByrOTl. 

Hark, — the bell, the bell ! 
The knell of tyranny, — the mighty voice 
That to the city and the plain, to earth 
And listening heaven, proclaims the glorious tale 
Of Kome re-born, and freedom ! 

VII. SHOUTING AND CALLING. 

("Expulsive Orotund:" "Pure Tone:" Intense "Sustained" Force.) 
Macduff's Outcry on the Murder of Duncan. — Shakespeare. 

Awake ! awake ! 
Ring the alarm-bell : — Murder ! and treason ! — 
Banquo, and Donalbain ! Malcolm ! awake ! 



v/: 



EXAMPLES OF "TRANSITION" IN FORCE. 

1. From Tranquillity and Reverence to Terror. 

(From "Subdued" to "Impassioned.") 

Mariner's Dream. — Dimond. 

%/ Subdued. 

His hardships seem o'er ; 
And a murmur of happiness steals through his rest ; — 
" O God ! Thou hast blest me ; — I ask for no more." 

Impassioned. 

Ah ! what is that flame which now bursts on his eye ? 

Ah ! what is that sound that now larums his ear ? 
'T is the lightning's red glare, painting wrath on the sky ! 

'T is the crashing of thunders, the groan of the sphere ! 
He springs from his hammock, — he flies to the deck, — 

Amazement confronts him with images dire ; 
Wild winds and mad waves drive the vessel a wreck, — 

The masts fly in splinters, — the shrouds are on fire ! 
7 



98 ORTHOPHONY. 

2. Joy, Awe, and Terror. 
Shipwreck. — Wilson. 

* Joy- 

("Loud" Force.) 
Many ports will exult at the gleam of her mast. 

/ Awe. 
("Subdued" Force.) 
Hush ! hush ! thou vain dreamer ! this hour is her last. 

Terror. 
("Impassioned" Force.) 
Her keel hath struck on a hidden rock ; 

And her planks are torn asunder ; 
And down come her masts with a reeling shock, 
And a hideous crash like thunder ! 

s ' S. From Terror to Awe. 
(From "Impassioned" to " Subdued.") 
Mariner's Dream. — Dimond. 
Impassioned. 

Like mountains the billows tremendously swell, — 
In vain the lost wretch calls on Mercy to save ; — 

J Subdued. 
Unseen hands of spirits are ringing his knell ; 
And the death-angel flaps his broad wing o'er the wave ! 

4. From Pathos to Authoritative Command. 
(From " Subdued " to " Loud.") 
Treasures op the Deep. — Mrs. Hemans. 
To thee the love of woman hath gone down, 

Dark flow thy tides o'er manhood's noble head, 
O'er youth's bright locks and beauty's flowery crown : — • 



TRANSITION IN FORCE. 99 

Authoritative Command. 

("Loud" Force.) 
\ 
Yet must thou hear a voice — Restore the Dead ! 

Earth shall reclaim her precious things from thee — 

Restore the Dead, thou Sea ! 

5. From Reverence to Terror, then from Horror to Ea- 
gerness, returning to Horror, then from Reverence to Horror, 
and from Eagerness to Horror, Consternation, and Awe. 

(From " Suppressed " and " Subdued " to " Impassioned.") 

Bernardo del Carpio, the son of an imprisoned sire, being as- 
sured BY HIS FALSE KING THAT HE SHALL AGAIN SEE HIS FATHER, 
MEETS NOT THE LIVING PERSON BUT HIS LIFELESS BODY : HENCE THE 
ALTERNATIONS OF EXCITED AND CONFLICTING FEELINGS. — Mrs. H em- 
ails. 

Reverence. v 

("Subdued" Force.) 

A lowly knee to earth he bent, — his father's hand he 
took — 

Terror. 

( ' ' Impassioned ' ' Force. ) 

What was there in its touch that all his fiery spirit shook ! 

Horror. 

("Subdued" Force.) 

That hand was cold ! a frozen thing : — it dropped from 
his like lead ! 

Eagerness. 
("Suppressed" Force.) 
He looked up to the face above — 

Horror. 

("Subdued" Force.) 

the face was of the dead ; 



100 ORTHOPHONY. 

Reverence. 
(" Subdued" Force.) 
A plume waved o'er the noble brow — 



Horror. 

("Subdued" Force.) 
that brow was fixed and white : 



Eagerness. 
("Suppressed" Force.) 
He met at last his father's eyes — 

Horror. 
("Subdued" Force.) 

but in them was no sight ! 

Consternation. 
("Loud" Force.) 
Up from the ground he sprang, and gazed — 

Awe. 
("Subdued" Force.) 

but who could paint that gaze ? 

They hushed their very hearts, that saw its horror and 
amaze. 



v 



STRESS. 101 

CHAPTER VI. 

" STRESS." 

The force of utterance, in a sentence or a clause, may be 
on one phrase, or even on a single word. In the pronunci- 
ation of a word, it may be exclusively on one syllable. In 
the enunciation of a syllable, the organic force may lie 
chiefly on a single letter. In the sound of a letter, the force 
of the voice may lie conspicuously on the first, or on the 
last part of the sound, on the middle, or on both extremes ; 
or it may be distributed, with an approach to equalizing 
force, over all parts of the sound. It is these modes of ap- 
plying the force to different parts of a syllable which con- 
stitutes " stress." 

The classification of the forms of stress which may be 
used with any degree of force, is as follows : — 

1st, " Radical Stress" or that in which the force of utter- 
ance is, usually, more or less " explosive," and falls on the 
"radical" (initial or first) part of a sound. 

2d, " Median stress," that in which the force is " expul- 
sive " or " effusive," and swells out, whether slowly or rap- 
idly, at the middle of a sound. 

3d, " Vanishing stress" or that which withholds the " ex- 
pulsive " or " explosive " force till the " vanish," or last mo- 
ment of the sound. 

4th, " Compound stress," or that in which the voice, with 
more or less of " explosive " force, touches forcefully and 
distinctly on both the initial and the final points of a sound, 
but passes slightly and almost imperceptibly over the mid- 
dle part. 

5th, " Thorough stress," in which the initial, middle, and 
final portions of a sound are all distinctively and impressively 
marked by special " expulsive force " of voice. 

6th, " Tremor" tremulous, or " intermittent stress." 



102 



ORTHOPHONY. 



I. "RADICAL STRESS." 

This form of vocal force is exemplified in the mechanical 
act of coughing. 1 It imparts a percussive and abrupt open- 
ing to every syllable. In speech its highest form consists in 
the utterance of all sounds which embody startling and ab- 
rupt emotions, as fear, anger, etc. It exists also, although 
in a reduced form, in the tones of determined will, earnest 
argument, emphatic and distinct or exact communication, 
and other unimpassioned modes of expression. It addresses 
in clear, distinct style, the ear and the understanding. The 
defmiteness and decision of the speaker's intention, the clear 
conviction of his judgment, the distinctness of his percep- 
tions, and the energy of his will, are all indicated in this nat- 
ural language of voice. Carried to excess, it becomes, of 
course, a fault : it savors of dogmatical arrogance and as- 
sumption, of selfish wilfulness and self-conceit. Persuasion, 
not intimidation, is the soul of eloquence ; argument, not as- 
sertion, the instrument of conviction : sympathy, not oppo- 

1 " There are so few speakers able to give a radical stress to syllabic ut- 
terance, with this momentary burst, which I here mean to describe, that I 
must draw an illustration from the effort of coughing. It will be perceived 
that a single impulse of coughing, is not, in all points, exactly like the 
abrupt voice on syllables ; for that single impulse is a forcing out of almost 
all the breath; yet if the tonic element ' a-we ' be employed as the vocality 
of coughing, its abrupt opening will truly represent the function of radical 
stress when used in discourse." 

" The clear and forcible radical stress can take place only after an inter- 
ruption of the voice. It would seem as if there is some momentary occlu- 
sion in the larynx, by which the breath is barred and accumulated for the 
purpose of a full and sudden discharge. This occlusion is most under com- 
mand, and the explosion is most powerful, on syllables beginning with a 
tonic element, or with an abrupt one preceding atonic* for, in this last 
case, an obstruction in the organs of articulation is combined with the 
function of the larynx above supposed." — Dr. Rush. 

"It is this " (radical stress) " which draws the cutting edge of words 
across the ear, and startles even stupor into attention : — this which lessens 
the fatigue of listening, and outvoices the stir and rustle of an assembly: 
— and it is the sensibility to this, through a general instinct of the animal 
ear, which gives authority to the groom and makes the horse submissive to 
bis angry accent." — lb. 



STEESS. 103 

sition, the avenue to the heart. A uniform, hard " radical 
stress," therefore, can effect none of the best purposes of 
speech, and must ever be regarded as allied to violence and 
vulgarity, or the slang of party invective. 

The practice of the following examples should be accom- 
panied by an extensive and thorough course of discipline on 
all degrees of " explosion," in elements, syllables, and words, 
— advancing from the very slightest to the intensest form, 
and occasionally reversing the order, so as to reduce the 
function of explosion from its most impassioned to its merely 
intellectual character and expression. 

EXAMPLES OF " RADICAL STRESS." 

I. " IMPASSIONED RADICAL." 

1. Anger and Scorn. 
(" Explosive " Utterance : " Aspirated Pectoral Quality.") 
Coriolanus, to the People. — Shakespeare. 
You common cry of curs ! whose breath I hate 
As reek o' the rotten fens, — whose loves I prize 
As the dead carcasses of unburied men, 
That do corrupt my air, — /banish you !' . 

2. Anger, excited to Rage. 
The Lord of the Isles. — Scott. 
Lorn (about to assault Bruce). Talk not to me 
Of odds or match ! — When Comyn died, 
Three daggers clashed within his side. 
Talk not to me of sheltering hall ! — 
The Church of God saw Comyn fall ! 
On God's own altar streamed his blood ; 
While o'er my prostrate kinsman stood 
The ruthless murderer, even as now, — 
With armed hand and scornful brow, — 
Up ! all who love me ! — blow on blow I 
And lay the outlawed felons low 1 



104 • ORTHOPHONY. 



II. " UNIMPASSIONED RADICAL. J 

In these examples the " radical stress " is merely of that 
gentle kind which gives distinctness and life to articulation, 
by a firm and clear " radical movement," and preserves the 
serious style from verging on the solemn, by " swell " and 
prolongation, or by drawling. The slightest form of a clear 
cough is the mechanical standard of organic action in this 
degree of " stress ; " and this distinction should be carefully 
observed ; for, when strong feeling is expressed in " grave," 
or in " serious," or in " animated " style, especially in po- 
etry, the " stress " changes to " median," for greater ex- 
pressive effect. 

1. Animation. 
Meeting at Night. — Browning. 
A tap at the pane, — the quick, sharp scratch 
And blue spurt of a lighted match. 

2. Didactic Composition : Grave Style. 

("Pure Tone:" "Moderate Force:" "Grave" Style, —usual style of 
a Sermon, or of a Moral or Political Discourse. ) 

Immortality of the Soul. — Addison. 
How can it enter into the thoughts of man, that the 
soul, which is capable of such immense perfections, and of 
receiving new improvements to all eternity, shall fall away 
into nothing almost as soon as it is created? Are such 
abilities made for no purpose ? A brute arrives at a point 
of perfection that he can never pass : in a few years he has 
all the endowments he is capable of ; and were he to live 
ten thousand more, would be the same thing he is at pres- 
ent. Were a human soul thus at a stand in her accomplish- 
ments, were her faculties to be full blown, and incapable of 
farther enlargement, I could imagine it might fall away in- 
sensibly, and drop at once into a state of annihilation. But 
ean we believe that a thinking being which is in a perpetual 



STRESS. 105 

progress of improvements, and travelling on from perfec- 
tion to perfection, — after having just looked abroad into 
the works of its Creator, and made a few discoveries of his 
infinite goodness, wisdom, and power, — must perish at her 
first setting out, and in the very beginning of her in- 
quiries ? 

3. Poetic Composition : Animated Style. 
("Pure Tone: " " Moderate Force: " "Lively" Style.) 
Spring. — Bryant. 
Is this a time to be gloomy and sad, 

When our mother Nature laughs around ; 
When even the deep blue heavens look glad, 

And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground ? 

The clouds are at play, in the azure space, 

And their shadows at play on the bright green vale, 

And here they stretch to the frolic chase, 
And there they roll on the easy gale. 

And look at the broad-faced sun how he smiles 
On the dewy earth that smiles on his ray, 

On the leaping waters and gay young isles, — 
Ay, look, and he '11 smile thy gloom away. 

4. Poetic Composition : Gay Style. 
Spring. — Bryant. 
There 's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower, 

There 's a titter of winds in that beechen tree, 
There 's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower 
And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea ! 



106 ORTHOPHONY. 

II. " MEDIAN STRESS." 

This form of " stress " Dr. Rush describes as " a gradual 
strengthening and subsequent reduction of the voice, similar 
to what is called a swell (swell and diminish) in the lan- 
guage of musical expression." 

" Median stress " has the form of " effusive " utterance in 
sublime, solemn, and pathetic emotions : it becomes." expul- 
sive " in those which combine force with grandeur, as in 
admiration, courage, authoritative command, indignation, 
and similar feelings. But its effect is utterly incompatible 
with the abruptness of " explosion," Its comparatively mu- 
sical character adapts it, with special felicity of effect, to 
the melody of verse, and the natural " swell " of poetic ex- 
pression. x 

This mode of " stress " is one of the most important in 
its effect on language, whether in the form of speaking or 
of reading. Destitute of its ennobling and expansive sound, 
the recitation of poetry sinks into the style of dry prose, the 
language of devotion loses its sacredness, the tones of ora- 
tory lose their power over the heart. 

There is a danger of this natural beauty of vocal expres- 
sion being converted into a fault by being overdone. The 
habit recognized under the name of " mouthing " has an ex- 
cessively increased and prolonged " median swell " for one 
of its chief characteristics. In this shape it becomes a 
great deformity in utterance, — particularly when combined 
with what is no infrequent concomitant, the faulty mode of 
voice known as " chanting " or " singing." 

The practice of " median stress," therefore, requires very 
close attention. The spirit of poetry and the language of 
eloquence — the highest effects of human utterance — 
render it indispensable as an accomplishment in elocution. 
But a chaste and discriminating ear is requisite to decide 
the just degree of its extent. 



STRESS. 107 

EXAMPLES OF "MEDIAN STRESS.'* 
I. " EFFUSIVE " UTTERANCE. 

1. Pathos. 

}" Pure Tone:" "Subdued Force:" Gentlest form of "Median Stress," - 
a barely perceptible swell.) 

In Memoriam. — Tennyson. 

Calm is the morn without a sound, 

Calm as to suit a calmer grief, 

And only through the faded leaf 
The chestnut pattering to the ground : 



Calm and deep peace in this wide air, 
These leaves that redden to the fall ; 
And in my heart if calm at all, 

If any calm, a calm despair : 

Calm on the seas, and silver sleep, 
And waves that sway themselves in rest, 
And dead calm in that noble breast 

Which heaves but with the heaving deep. 

2. Solemnity. (" Swell " moderately increased.) 

Night Thoughts.— Young. 

The bell strikes one. We take no note of time 

But from its loss. To' give it then a tongue, 

Is wise in man. As if an angel spoke, 

I feel the solemn sound. If heard aright, 

It is the knell of my departed hours : 

Where are they ? With the years beyond the flood. 

It is the signal that demands dispatch : 

How much is to be done ! My hopes and fears 

Start up alarm 'd, and o'er life's narrow verge 

Look down — on what ? A fathomless abyss ; 



108 ORTHOPHONY. 

A dread eternity ! how surely mine ! 

And can eternity belong to me, 

Poor pensioner on the bounties of an hour? 

3. Composure. 
Cardinal Wolsey after his Downfall,. — Shakespeare. 

Cromwell. How does your grace ? 

Wolsey, Why well % 

Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell. 
I know myself now ; and I feel within me 
A peace above all earthly dignities, 
A still and quiet conscience. The kiug has cured me, 
I humbly thank his grace ; and from these shoulders, 
These ruined pillars, out of pity, taken 
A load would sink a navy, — too much honor. 
Oh, 't is a burden, Cromwell, 't is a burden, 
Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven. 

L Pathos and Sublimity. ( Full and prolonged " swell." ) 

Treasures of the Deep. — Mrs. Eemans. 

Yet more ! the billows and the depths have more ! 
High hearts and brave are gathered to thy breast ! 
They hear not now the booming waters roar, 
The battle-thunders will not break their rest ; — 
Keep thy red gold and gems, thou stormy grave — 
Give back the true and brave ! 

5. Solemnity, Sublimity, and Fervor. ( " Fullest swell." ) 
From the Book of Psalms. 
O sing unto the Lord a new song ; for He hath done mar- 
vellous things : his right hand and his holy arm hath gotten 
Him the victory. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all 
the earth : make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. 
Sing unto the Lord with the harp ; with the harp, and the 
voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet, make 



STRESS. 109 

a joyful noise before the Lord the King. Let the sea roar, 
and the fulness thereof ; the world, and they that dwell 
therein. Let the floods clap their hands : let the hills be 
joyful together. 

II. "EXPULSIVE" UTTERANCE. 

" Pure Tone : " " Moderate " Force. 

1. Grave Style. 

(Gentle and pure " Median Stress," without prolongation.) 

The Neglect of Religion. — Alison. 

The excuses of youth for the neglect of religion ar& 
those which are most frequently offered and most easily 
admitted. The restrictions of religion, though proper 
enough for maturer age, are too severe, it is said, for this 
frolicsome and gladsome period. Its consolations, too, they 
do not want. Leave these to prop the feeble limbs of old 
age or to cheer the sinking spirits of adversity. False and 
pernicious maxim ! As if, at the end of a stated number of 
years, a man could become religious in a moment ! As if 
the husbandman, at the end of a summer, could call up a 
harvest from the soil which he had never tilled ! As if man- 
hood, too, would have no excuses ! And what are they ? 
That he has grown too old to amend. That his parents 
took no pains with his religious education, and therefore his 
ignorance is not his own fault. That he must be making 
provision for old age ; and the pressure of cares will allow 
him no time to attend to the evidences, or learn the rules of 
religion. Thus life is spent in framing apologies, in making 
and breaking resolutions, and deferring amendment, till 
death places his cold hand on the mouth open to make its 
last excuse, and one more is added to the crowded congre- 
gation of the dead. 



110 ORTHOPHONY. 

2. Serious Style. 

Tenderness. 

A Brother's Love. — Browning. 

Mildred, I do believe a brother's love 
For a sole sister must exceed them all ! 
For see now, only see ! there 's no alloy 
Of earth that creeps into the perfect'st gold 
Of other loves — no gratitude to claim ; 
You never gave her life — not even aught 
That keeps life — never tended her, instructed, 
Enriched her, — so your love can claim no right 
O'er hers, save pure love's claim — that 's what I call 
Freedom from earthliness. You '11 never hope 
To be such friends, for instance, she and you, 
As when you hunted cowslips in the woods, 
Or played together in the meadow hay, 
Oh, yes — with age, respect comes, and your worth 
Is felt, there 's growing sympathy of tastes, 
There 's ripened friendship, there 's confirmed esteem, 

— Much head these make against the new-comer ! 
The startling apparition — the strange youth — 
Whom one half-hour's conversation with, or, say, 
Mere gazing at, shall change (beyond all change 
This Ovid ever sang about ! ) your soul — 

— Her soul, that is, — the sister's soul ! With her 
'T was winter yesterday ; now, all is warmth, 
The green leaf's springing and the turtle's voice, 

" Arise, and come away ! " Come whither ? — far 

Enough from the esteem, respect, and all 

The brother's somewhat insignificant 

Array of rights ! all which he knows before — 

Has calculated on so long ago ! 

I think such love, (apart from yours and mine,) 

Contented with its little term of life, 



STRESS. Ill 

Intending to retire betimes, aware 
How soon the back-ground must be place for it, 
I think, am sure, a brother's love exceeds 
All the world's in its unworldliness. 

3. Delight. 

The Bard. — Gray. 

Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, 

While proudly rising o'er the azure realm, 
In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes ; 

Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm. 

4. Declamatory Force. 
Resistance to Oppression. — Sheridan. 
Shall we be told that the exasperated feelings of a 
whole people, goaded and spurred on to clamor and resist- 
ance, were excited by the poor and feeble influence of their 
secluded princesses ? or that they could inspire this enthusi- 
asm and this despair into the breasts of a people who felt 
no grievance, and had suffered no torture ? "What motive, 
then, could have such influence in their bosoms? What 
motive ! That which Nature, the common parent, plants in 
the bosom of man, and which is congenial with, and makes 
part of his being, — that feeling which tells him that man 
was never made to be the property of man ; but that, when 
through pride and insolence of power, one human creature 
dares to tyrannize over another, it is a power usurped, and 
resistance is a duty, — that principle which tells him that 
resistance to power usurped is not merely a duty which he 
owes to himself and to his neighbor, but a duty which he 
ewes to his God, in asserting and maintaining the rank 
which He gave him in the creation ! — to that common God, 
who, where He gives the form of man, whatever may be the 
complexion, gives also the feelings and the rights of man, — 
that principle which neither the rudeness of ignorance can 
stifle, nor the enervatiGn of refinement extinguish, — that 



112 ORTHOPHONY. 

principle which makes it base for a man to suffer when he 
ought to act ; which, tending to preserve to the species the 
original designations of Providence, spurns at the arrogant 
distinctions of man and vindicates the independent quality 
of his race. 

5. Impassioned Force. 

(A full and gushing " swell " of grief.) 

Antony, before the Conspirators. — Shakespeare. 

That I did love thee, Caesar, oh ! 't is true. 
If then thy spirit look upon us now, 
Shall it not grieve thee, dearer than thy death, 
To see thy Antony making his peace, 
Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes, 
Most noble ! in the presence of thy corse ? 
Had I as many eyes as thou hast wounds, 
Weeping as fast as they stream forth thy blood, 
It would become me better, than to close 
In terms of friendship with thine enemies. 
Pardon me, Julius ! — Here wast thou bayed, brave hart, 
Here didst thou fall ; and here thy hunters stand, 
Signed in thy spoil, and crimsoned in thy lethe. 
O world ! thou wast the forest to this hart ; 
And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee ! 
How like a deer, stricken by many princes, 
Dost thou here lie ! 

6. Shouting and Calling. 

The strongest "swell" of which the voice is capable, the note prolonged.} 
Cinna, after the assassination of Caesar. — Shakespeare. 

Liberty ! Freedom ! Tyranny is dead ! — 
Run hence ! proclaim, cry it about the streets ! 

Cassius. Some to the common pulpits ! and cry out, 
Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement ! 



STEESS. 113 



HI. "VANISHING STRESS." / ^W ^ 




-f-r 



The word " vanishing," in this use of it, is divested en- 
tirely of its usual meaning. It refers, as a technical term, 
merely to the last audible moment, or vanish of a vocal 
sound, — as the word " vanish " was technically used in 
speaking of the " vanishing movement " in the utterance of 
a sound or the enunciation of a letter. 

The force of utterance in the expression of emotions 
marked by " vanishing stress " begins with a light and gen- 
tie, and ends with a heavy and violent sound, which leaves 
off instantly and abruptly. 

It is exemplified, in its moral effect, in the language of a 
child stung to a high pitch of impatience or peevish feeling, 
and uttering, in the tone of the most violent ill- temper, its 
appropriate " I won't ! " or " You shan't ! " In such cir- 
cumstances the " explosion " of passion is deferred, or 
hangs for a moment on the ear, till the " vanish " or final 
part of the sound bursts out from the chest, throat, and 
mouth with furious vehemence ; leaving, in its abrupt ter- 
mination, an effect directly contrary to the dying wail of 
grief, or the gentle vanish of the tone of love. 

The obvious preparation of the organs for the vocal effect, 
in the expression of " vanishing stress," implies its compar- 
ative dependence on volition. Hence it is the natural 
utterance of determined purpose, of earnest resolve, of stern 
rebuke, of contempt, of astonishment and horror, of fierce 
and obstinate will, of dogged sullenness of temper, of stubborn 
passion, and all similar moods. It is the language, also, of 
peevishness and impatience, and, sometimes, of excessive 
grief. 



114 



ORTHOPHONY. 



EXAMPLES OF "VANISHING STRESS." 

1. Determined Purpose and Earnest Resolve, 

("Pectoral Quality:" "Declamatory" Force: Bold "Stress.") 

Webster, on Freedom of Debate. 

On such occasions, I will place myself on the extreme 

boundary of my right, and bid defiance to the arm that 

would push me from it. 

2. ("Quality" and Force, as in Example 1: "Stress " more deliberate.) 
Otis, against "Writs of Assistance/' 
Let the consequences be what they will, I am deter- 
mined to proceed. The only principles of public conduct 
which are worthy of a gentleman or a man, are, to sacrifice 
estate, health, ease, applause, and even life, at the sacred 
call of his country. 

V/ 3. Shame and Self- Reproach. 
(" Aspirated Quality : " "Loud "Force: Emphatic " Vanishing Stress.") 
Cassio. — Shakespeare. 
I will rather sue to be despised, than to deceive so good 
a commander, with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet 
an officer. Drunk ! and speak parrot ? and squabble ? 
swagger? swear? and discourse fustian with one's own 
shadow ? O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no 
name to be known by, let us call thee — devil ! 

4. Stern Rebuke. 

("Aspirated Pectoral Qualit}': " " Impassioned " Force : Vehement 
" Stress.") 

King Henry V., to Lord Scroop on the detection of his Trea* 
son. — Shakespeare. 

But oh 1 

What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop- thou cruel, 

Ungrateful, savage, and inhuman creature ! 

Thou that didst bear the keys' of all my counsels, 

That knew'st the very bottom of my soul, 

That almost might'st have coined me into gold, 

Wouldst thou have practised on me for thy use? 



STRESS. 115 

5. Violent Grief and Desperation. 

$" Aspirated Quality: " " Impassioned" Force: Violent "Stress."} 
Romeo's Death. — Shakespeare. 

Oh, here 
Will I set up my everlasting rest ; 
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars 
From this world-wearied flesh. — Eyes, look your last I 
Arms, take your last embrace ! and lips, oh, you 
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss 
A dateless bargain to engrossing death ! — 
Come, bitter conduct, come unsavory guide ! 
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on 
The dashing rocks thy seasick, weary bark ! 

V 6. Astonishment and Horror. 

(Extremely "Aspirated Pectoral Quality:" "Impassioned" Force: 

Excessive "Stress.") 

Macduff, on discovering the Murder of Duncan. — Shakespeare. 
Oh ! horror ! horror ! horrorj — Tongue nor heart, 
Cannot conceive, nor name thee ! 

Confusion now hath made his masterpiece ! 
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope 
The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence 
The life o' the building. 

Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight 
With a new Gorgon ! 

7. Fierce and Stubborn Will. 

"Aspirated, Pectoral, and Guttural Quality:" "Impassioned" Vehe« 
mence : Excessive "Stress.") 

Shtlock, refusing to listen to Antonio. — Shakespeare. 

I '11 have my bond ; I will not hear thee speak. 

I '11 have my bond ; and therefore speak no more. 



116 ORTHOPHONY. 

I '11 not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool, 
To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield 
To Christian intercessors. Follow not, 
I '11 have no speaking ! I will have my bond." 

V 8. Impatience. 

(Expressive elements as above, but increased.) 
Hotspur maddened against the King. — Shakespeare. 

Wor. Those same noble Scots, 

That are your prisoners, — 

Hot. I '11 keep them all ; 

By heaven, he shall not have a Scot of them. 
No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not. 
I '11 keep them, by this hand. 

Wor. You start away, 

And lend no ear unto my purposes. — 
Those prisoners you shall keep. 

Hot. Nay, I will ; that 's flat. — • 

He said, he would not ransom Mortimer ; 
Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer ; 
But I will find him when he lies asleep, 
And in his ear I '11 holla — Mortimer ! 
Nay, 

I '11 have a starling shall be taught to speak 
Nothing but Mortimer, and give it him, 
To keep his anger still in motion. 

IV. " COMPOUND STRESS." 

This designation is applied to that form of " stress " 
which throws out the voice forcibly on the first and the 
last part of a sound, but slights, comparatively, the inter- 
mediate portion. It is, then, the application of a " radical " 
and a " vanishing " stress on the same sound, without au 
intervening " median." 

It is the natural mode of " expression," in the utterance 



STRESS. 117 

of surprise, and sometimes, though less frequently, of other 
emotions, as contempt and mockery, sarcasm and raillery. 
The repetition of the exclamation indeed ! with the voice 
of extreme surprise, and, with the rising inflection, will 
show the use of compound stress upon the syllable deed. 

The careful and repeated practice of " compound stress " 
on elements, syllables, and words, should accompany the 
repetition of the following examples. To give these last, 
however, their true character and full effect, the imagina- 
tion must be wholly given up to the supposed situation of 
the speaker, so as to receive a full sympathetic impression 
of the feeling to be uttered. Vivid emotion only can 
prompt true expressive tone. 

EXAMPLES OF "COMPOUND STRESS." 

y 1. Extreme Surprise. 

("Aspirated, Guttural, and Oral Quality:" "Impassioned" Force.) 

Queen Constance, when confounded with the intelligence op 
the union of lewis and blanche, and the consequent injury 
to her son Arthur. — Shakespeare. 

Gone to be married ! Gone to swear a peace ! 
False blood to false blood joined ! Gone to be friends ! 
Shall Lewis have Blanche, and Blanche these provinces ? 
It is not so ; thou hast misspoke, misheard, — 
Be well advised, tell o'er thy tale again : 
It cannot be ; — thou dost but say 't is so. 



/, 



2. Surprise, Perplexity, and Contempt. 
The examples op "compound stress" occur in the words 

WHICH THE SERVANT REPEATS AFTER CORIOLANUS. He HAS EN- 
TERED, POORLY CLAD, AND UNRECOGNIZED, THE MANSION OF AuFID- 
IUS, AND IS ILL RECEIVED BY THE DOMESTICS, WHOM HE TREATS 

with harshness and disdain. — Shakespeare. 
Servant. Where dwellest thou ? 
Coriolanus. Under the canopy. 
Serv. Under the canopy ! 
Cor. Ay! 






118 ORTHOPHONY. 

Serv. Where 's that ? 
Cor. F the city of kites and crows. 
Serv. V the city of kites and crows! — ("What an ass 
it is !) — Then thou dwellest with daws, too ? 
Cor. No : I serve not thy master. 

3. Indignant Astonishment. 
Brutus, to Cassius. — Shakespeare. 
("Orotund Quality: " "Impassioned" Force': Vehement " Stress.") 
Shall one of us that struck the foremost man 
Of all this world, but for supporting robbers, 
Contaminate our fingers with base bribes, 
And sell the mighty space of our large honors 
For so much trash as may be grasped thus ? 
\ I 'd rather be a dog, and bay the moon, 
r ^ Than such a Roman ! 

\ 

V. "THOROUGH STRESS." 

In this form, the syllables, as the term implies, are marked 
with force evenly throughout, upon the opening, middle, 
and close of each sound. 

The " thorough stress " is the natural mode of utterance 
in powerful emotion of that kind which seems, as it were, 
to delight in full and swelling expression, and to dwell upon 
and amplify the sounds of the voice. 

" Thorough stress " is, accordingly, the characteristic 
mode of " expression " in the utterance of rapture, joy, 
triumph, and exultation, lofty command, indignant emotion, 
disdain, excessive grief, or whatever high-wrought feeling 
seems for the time to wreak itself on 'expressive sound. It 
is obviously the language of extreme or impassioned feeling 
only. It abounds, accordingly, in lyric and dramatic poetry. 
It is found, however, in all vehement declamation in which 
the emotion is sustained by reflective sentiment, as in the 
excitement of virtuous indignation and high-souled contempt 



STRESS. 119 

" Thorough stress " is one of the most powerful weapons 
of oratory, as well as one of the most vivid effects of nat- 
ural feeling. Indiscriminately used, it becomes ineffective, 
as savoring of the habit and mannerism of the individual, 
rather than of just and appropriate energy. In such cir- 
cumstances it becomes rant ; and when joined, as it some- 
times is, to the habit of " mouthing," it can excite nothing 
but disgust in a hearer of well-regulated taste. 

EXAMPLES OF "THOROUGH STRESS." 
1. Courage. 
(" Orotund Quality : " " Impassioned " Force : Bold " Stress.") 
Bannockburn. — Burns. 
Lay the proud usurpers low ! 
Tyrants fall in every foe ! 
Liberty 's in every blow ! 
Forward ! let us do or die ! 

Warren's Address. — Pierpont. 
Stand ! the ground 's your own, my braves ! 

Will ye give it up to slaves ? 
Will ye look for greener graves ? 

Hope ye mercy still ? 
What 's the mercy despots feel ? 

Hear it in that battle peal ! 
Read it on yon bristling steel ! 

Ask it — ye who will. / 

2. Patriotic Ardor : Lyric Style, V 
(Expressive elements as above, but increased in degree.) 
Old Ironsides. — Holmes. 
Nail to the mast her holy flag, 
Set every threadbare sail ; 
And give her to the god of storms, 
The lightning and the gale ! 



120 ORTHOPHONY. 

3. Indignation. 

("Aspirated " Harsh Quality: Violent Force: Emphatic "Stress.") 

Hamlet to his Mother. — Skaftespeare. 

Look you now, what follows. 
Here is your husband, like a mildewed ear, 
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes ? 
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, 
And batten on this moor ? Ha ! have you eyes ? 
You cannot call it love. And what judgment 
Would step from this to this ? What devil was 't 
That thus hath cozened you at hood-man blind ? 
O shame ! where is thy blush ! 

/ 

4. Vehement Indignation. 
("Expulsive Orotund:" "Declamatory" Force: Vehement "Stress.") 
Chatham's Rebuke of Lord Suffolk. 
These abominable principles, and this more abominable 
avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation. I 
call upon that right reverend and this most learned Bench to 
vindicate the religion of their God, to defend and support 
the justice of their country. I call upon the bishops to in- 
terpose the unsullied sanctity of their lawn, upon the judges 
to interpose the purity of their ermine, to save us from this 
pollution. I call upon the honor of your lordships to rev- 
erence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your 
own. I call upon the spirit and humanity of my country to 
vindicate the national character. 

5. Disdain. 
("Expulsive Orotund:" "Impassioned" Force: Powerful "Stress.") 
Satan to Ithuriel and Zephon. — Milton. 
" Know ye not then," said Satan, filled with scorn, 
" Know ye not me ? — Ye knew me once no mate 
For you ; there sitting where ye durst not soar: 
Not to know me argues yourselves unknown, — 
The lowest of your throng." 



STRESS. 121 

TREMOR, OR " INTERMITTENT STRESS." 

When by the hysterical or excessive force of impassioned 
feeling the breath is agitated into brief successive jets, in- 
stead of gushing forth in a continuous stream of unbroken 
sound, a tremor, or tremulous effect of voice, is produced, 
which breaks its " stress " into tittles or points, — much in 
the same way that a row of dots may be substituted to the 
eye for one continuous line. The human voice, in the case 
now in view, is as appropriately said to " tremble," as when 
we apply the term to the shivering motion of the muscular 
frame. 

The " tremor " of the voice is the natural expression of 
all emotions which, from their peculiar nature, are attended 
with a weakened condition of the bodily organs ; such as 
extreme feebleness from age, exhaustion, sickness, fatigue, 
grief, and even joy and other feelings, in which ardor or ex- 
treme tenderness predominates. 

EXAMPLES OF TREMOR. 

1. The Tremor of Grief and Feebleness. 

("Pure Tone: " "Subdued" Force: Tremulous Utterance^hroughout.) 

Wolsey. — Shakespeare. 

O father Abbot, 
An old man, broken with the storms of state, 
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye ; 
Give him a little earth for charity. 

2. Exhaustion and Fatigue. 

("Aspirated Pectoral and Oral Quality:" "Suppressed" Force: "Tre- 
mor" throughout.) 

As you like it. — Shakespeare. 

Adam (to Orlando). Dear master, I can go no farther: 

Oh ! I die for food ! Here lie I down, and measure out my 

grave. Farewell I kind master. 1 .' / / .' 



122 ORTHOPHONY. 




(" Pure Tone: " " Subdueji " Force of pathos : occasional " Tremor " of 
tenderness.) 

Orlando (to Adam), Why, how now, Adam ! no 
greater heart in thee ? Live a little ; comfort a little ; cheer 
thyself a little. For my sake be comfortable ; hold death 
a while at the arm's end ; I will here be with thee presently. 
Well said ! thou look'st cheerily : and I '11 be with thee 
quickly. Yet thou liest in the bleak air ; come, I will bear 
thee to some shelter. Cheerly, good Adam. 

3. Sickness. 

King John, on the eve of his death, to Faulcon bridge. — 

Shakespeare. 

("Aspirated Pectoral Quality:" u Suppressed " Force : Gasping and 
Tremulous Utterance.) 

O cousin, thou art come to set mine eye : 
My heart hath one poor string to stay it by, 
Which holds but till thy news be uttered ; 
And then all this thou seest, is but a clod 
And module of confounded royalty. 



y 



4. Excessive Grief. 

Eve to Adam, after their fall and doom. — Milton. 

{** Aspirated Pectoral and Oral Quality: " " Impassioned " Force: Weep* 
ing Utterance: "Tremor" throughout.) 

Forsake me not thus, Adam : witness heaven 
What love sincere, and reverence in my heart 
I bear thee, and u&veeting have offended, 
Unhappily deceived : thy suppliant, 
I beg, and clasp thy knees ; bereave me not, 
Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thj aid, 
Thy counsel, in this uttermost distress, 
My only strength and stay ; forlorn of thee 
WhitEer shaU I betake me, where subsist ? 



STRESS. 123 

5. Extreme Pity. 
("Pure Tone:" {'Impassioned " Force: Weeping and Tremulou* 

\/ Utterance.) fabLtSlr-eS*-- , 

The Tempest. — Shakespeare. A>^L^>^C- ^rtTV- 

Miranda {to her father). Oh! I have suffered 
With those that I saw suffer ! a brave vessel, 
Who had, no doubt, some noble creatures in her 
Dashed all to pieces. Oh ! the~cry did knock 
Against my very heart ! Poor souls ! they perished. 
Had I been any god of power, I would 
Have sunk the sea within the earth, or ere 
It should the good ship so have swallowed, and 
The freighting souls within her ! 

Teachers who are instructing classes will find great aid in 
the use of the black-board, for the purpose of visible illus- 
tration, in regard to the character and effect of the different 
species of "stress." Exercises such as the following may 
be prescribed for simultaneous practice in classes. 
(" Radical Stress.") [> All 



(Repeat six times in suc- 
cession, with constantly 
increasing force.) 



(" Vanishing Stress") <] 
(" Median Stress") <3> 
(" Compound Stress") £><] 
(" Thorough Stress") ^, 
(" Tremor.") .... 

To commence with a definite idea of the mode of " stress " 
in each instance, set out from the standard of a given emo- 
tion decidedly marked, and let the degree of emotion and 
the force of utterance be increased at every stage. Thus, 
let £> represent the " radical stress " on the sound of a, in 
the word all, in the following example of authoritative com- 
mand: u Attend all !" — <] the "vanishing stress" on the 
same element, in the following example of impatience and 
displeasure: "I said all, — not one or two." — <3> the 
" median stress " on the same element, in reverence and 
adoration : " Join all ye creatures in His praise ! " — 



124 ORTHOPHONY. 

fX3 the " compound stress," in astonishment and surprise : 
" What ! all ? did they all fail ? " — O the " thorough 

stress," in defiance : " Come one — come all ! " — 

the " tremor " of sorrow : " Oh ! I have lost you all ! " — 
The practice of the examples and the elements should 
extend to the utmost excitement of emotion and force 
of voice. Review tables of elements with all forms of 
" stress." 



CHAPTER VII. 

"MELODY" 

The word " melody " is applied to speech as in music, 
to designate the successive notes of the voice in reading or 
discourse. 

The use of this term presupposes a certain " pitch," or 
initial note, whether predominating in a passage, or merely 
commencing it, and to which the subsequent sounds stand in 
the relation of higher or lower or identical. There is, how- 
ever, a marked difference between the " melody " of music 
and that of speech. The former has comparatively the pleas- 
iog effect of poetry : the latter may possess a degree of this 
charm, but it may, on the contrary, possess no such beauty : 
it may exhibit a succession of the most harsh and grating 
sounds, — or it may be but a succession of articulations, in 
the utterance of a fact addressed exclusively to the under- 
standing. In every case, however, the relations of sounds 
to each other, as measured by the musical scale, can be dis- 
tinctly traced ; and, on this account, the " melody of speech," 
or of " reading," is a phrase as truly significant as that oi 
the " melody " of a strain of music. 



(I 



PITCH. 125 



Pitch. 



This term relates to the voice as high or low on the mu- 
sical scale, and the study of " pitch " as an element of " mel- 
ody " leads us accordingly to a classification of emotigns as 
characterized by comparatively high or low notes. The 
musician, when speaking of a strain of melody, can conven- 
iently refer to a precise note of the scale, by the exact let- 
ter which designates it, and which is produced by a given 
number of vibrations of sound, which may be scientifically 
marked. The elocutionist, on the contrary, derives his 
scale from feeling rather than from science or external rule. 
The natural pitch of human voices varies immensely, not 
only with sex and age, but in the accustomed notes of one 
individual, as differing from those of another. 

Due attention may, no doubt, enable the elocutionist to 
ascertain, in a given case, the precise note of the scale re- 
quired according to the organic formation and the vocal 
habit of an individual. But such a note might prove too 
low for the compass of voice in another person, or quite 
too high to be appropriate or impressive in another still, 
whose voice is naturally low-pitched. 

The language of elocution is accordingly limited to the 
familiar designation of "low" and "very low," "high" and 
" very high," when the scale is traced to any great extent 
beyond the " middle " or average pitch of utterance. This 
indefinite reference, however, is usually sufficient for the 
purposes of reading and speaking, which regard a general 
sympathetic effect, or feeling, rather than any which re- 
quires the precise measure of science. 

I. " MIDDLE " PITCH. 

The " middle " pitch of the voice is that of our habitual ut- 
terance on all occasions of ordinary communication in con- 
versation or address. It is the natural note of unimpassioned 
utterance, seeking to find its way to the understanding 



126 ORTHOPHONY. 

rather than to the heart, and hence avoiding high or low 
pitch, as belonging to the language of feeling or of fancy. 

The proper standard of middle pitch, for the purpose of 
vocal practice, is that of serious and earnest conversation in 
a numerous circle. 

EXAMPLES OF "MIDDLE" PITCH. 
1. Serious Didactic Style, 

("Pure Tone : " " Moderate " Force: " Unimpassioned Radical," and gen- 
tle "Median Stress.") 

Pleasures of Knowledge. — Alison. 
How different is the view of past life, in the man who 
is grown old in knowledge and wisdom, from that of him 
who is grown old in ignorance and folly ! The latter is like 
the owner of a barren country, that fills his eye with the 
prospect of naked hills and plains, which produce nothing 
either profitable or ornamental : the former beholds a beau- 
tiful and spacious landscape, divided into delightful gardens, 
green meadows, and fruitful fields, and can scarce cast his 
eye on a single spot of his possessions that is not covered 
with some beautiful plant or flower. 

2. Serious Narrative. 

("Quality," "Force," and "Stress," as in tne preceding example.) 
Anecdote. 

Raleigh's cheerfulness, during his last days, was so great, 
and his fearlessness of death so marked, that the Dean of 
Westminster who attended him, wondering at his deport- 
ment, reprehended the lightness of his manner. But Ra- 
leigh gave God thanks that he had never feared death ; 
for it was but an opinion and imagination ; and, as for the 
manner of death, he had rather die so than in a burning 
fever ; that some might have made shows outwardly ; but he 
felt the joy within. 



PITCH. 127 

/ 
3. Serious Description. \ / 

("Quality," etc., as before.) 
Sea-voyaglng. — Irving. 

I have said that at sea all is vacancy. I should correct 
the expression. To one given up to day-dreaming, and fond 
of losing himself in reveries, a sea-voyage is full of sub- 
jects for meditation ; but then they are the wonders of the 
deep, and of the air, and rather tend to abstract the mind 
from worldly themes. I delighted to loll over the quarter- 
railing, or climb to the main-top on a calm day, and muse 
for hours together on the tranquil bosom of a summer's sea ; 
or to gaze upon the piles of golden clouds just peering above 
the horizon, fancy them some fairy realms, and people them 
with a creation of my own ; or to watch the gentle, undulat- 
ing billows rolling their silver volumes, as if to die away 
on those happy shores. 



4. Animated Narrative Style. 

("Pure Tone :"" Moderate " Force: Yivid "Radical Stress.") 
Julius C^esab. — J. S. Knowles. 
To form an idea of Csesar's energy and activity, ob- 
serve him when he is surprised by the Nervii. His soldiers 
are employed in pitching their camp. — The ferocious en- 
emy sallies from his concealment, puts the Roman cavalry to 
the rout, and falls upon the foot. Everything is alarm, con- 
fusion, and disorder. Every one is doubtful what course to 
take, — every one but Cresar ! He, causes the banner to be 
erected, — the charge to be sounded, — the soldiers at a 
distance to be recalled, — all in a moment. He runs from 
place to place ; — his whole frame is in action ; — his 
words, his looks, his motions, his gestures, exhort his men to 
remember their former valor. He draws them up, and 
causes the signal to be given, — all in a moment. The con- 
test is doubtful and dreadful : two of his legions are en- 
tirely surrounded. He seizes a buckler from one of the 



128 ORTHOPHONY. 

private men, — puts himself at the head of his broken 
troops, — darts into the thick of the battle, — rescues his 
legions, and overthrows the enemy ! 

5. Animated Didactic Style, in Public Discourse. 

("Expulsive Orotund:" "Moderate" Force: Energetic " Radical " and 
"Median Stress.") 

Virtue. — Fawcett. 

Blood, says the pride of life, is more honorable than 
money. Indigent nobility looks down upon untitled opu- 
lence. This sentiment pushed a little farther, leads to the 
point I am pursuing. Mind is the noblest part of man ; 
and of mind, virtue is the noblest distinction. 

Honest man, in the ear of Wisdom, is a grander name, 
is a more high-sounding title than peer of the realm, or 
prince of the blood. According to the eternal rules of 
celestial precedency, in the immortal heraldry of Nature 
and of Heaven, Virtue takes place of all things. It is the 
nobility of angels ! It is the majesty of God ! 

II. " LOW " PITCH. 

This designation applies to the utterance of those feel- 
ings which we are accustomed to speak of as " deeper " 
than ordinary. Low notes seem the only natural language 
of grave emotions, such as accompany deeply serious and 
impressive thoughts, grave authority, or austere manner. 

EXAMPLES OF "LOW" PITCH. 

1. Grave and Impressive Thought. 

("Pure Tone:" "Moderate" Force: " Unimpassioned Radical" and 
Moderate "Median Stress.") 

Age. — Finlayson. 
That no man can promise to himself perpetual exemp- 
tion from suffering, is a truth obvious to daily observation. 
Nay, amid the shif tings of the scene in which we are 
placed, who can say that, for one hour, his happiness is 



PITCH. 129 

secure ? The openings through which we may be assailed 
are so numerous and unguarded that the very next moment 
may see some message of pain piercing the bulwarks of our 
peace. Our body may become the seat of incurable disease. 
Our mind may become a prey to unaccountable and im- 
aginary fears. Our fortune may sink in some of those rev- 
olutionary tempests which overwhelm so often the treasures 
of the wealthy. Our honors may wither on our brow, 
blasted by the slanderous breath of an enemy. Our friends 
may prove faithless in the hour of need, or they may be 
separated from us forever. Our children, the fondest hope 
of our hearts, may be torn from us in their prime ; or they 
may wound us still more deeply by their undutifulnesys and 
misconduct. 

2. Rebuke. 

("Vanishing Stress:" "Expulsive Orotund: " "Declamatory" Force.) 
Cardinal Wolsey to Nobles. — Shakespeare. 

Now I feel 
Of what coarse metal ye are moulded, — envy. 
How eagerly ye follow my disgraces, 
As if it fed ye ! And how sleek and wanton 
Ye appear in everything may bring my ruin ! 
Follow your envious courses, men of malice ; 
You have Christian warrant for them, and, no doubt/ 
In time will find their fit reward. 

3. (grave, Austere, Authoritative Manner. 
<" Expulsive ©rotund : " "Declamatory" Force: Firm "Median Stress.") 

@ATO, IN EEPLY TO ©TSAR'S MESSAGE THROUGH ©ECIUS. — Addisotl. 

My life is grafted on the fate of R@me. 
Would he save Gato, bid him sjaare his country. 
Bid him disband his legions, 
Restore the commonwealth to liberty, 
Submit his actions to the public censure, 
And stand the judgment of a Roman Senate, — 
Bid him do this, and Gato is his friend. 

// 



130 ORTHOPHONY. 



III. 

This designation applies to the notes of thoso emotions 
which are of the deepest character, and which are accord- 
ingly associated with the deepest utterance.^ These are 
chiefly, the following : deep solemnity, awe, amazement, hor- 
ror, despair, melancholy, and deep grief* 

EXAMPLES OF "VERY LOW" PITCH. 
1 . Deep Solemnity and Awe. 

(" Effusive and Expulsive Orotund:" "Subdued" Force: "Median 
Stress.") 

^j Hamlet's Soliloquy. — Shakespeare. 

To be, or not to be, that is the question : 

Whether 't is nobler in the mind, to suffer 

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, 

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, 

And by opposing end them ? To die, — to sleep, — 

No more ; and, by a sleep, to say we end 

The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks 

That flesh is heir to, — 't is a consummation 

Devoutly to be wished. To die, — to sleep ; — 

To sleep ! perchance to dream; — ay, there 's the rub % 

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, 

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 

Must give us pause : there 's the respect, 

That makes calamity of so long life : 

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, 

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely., 

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, 

The insolence of office, and the spurns 

That patient merit of the unworthy takes, 

When he himself might his quietus make 

With a bare bodkin ? 



PITCH. 131 

2. Deep Solemnity, Sublimity, and Awe. 

|" Effusive and Expulsive Orotund: " " Subdued and Suppressed " Force: 
"Median Stress.") 
v/ Cato, i> t Soliloquy. — Addison. 
It must be so ; — Plato, thou reasonest well ! 
Else, whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, 
This longing after immortality ? 
Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, 
Of falling into nought ? Why shrinks the soul 
Back on herself, and startles at destruction ? 
'T is the Divinity that stirs within us : 
'T is Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, 
And intimates Eternity to man. 
Eternity ! — thou pleasing, — dreadful thought ! 
Through what variety of untried being, 
Through what new scenes and changes must we pass! 
The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before me ; 
But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it. 



J 



IV. "HIGH PITCH. 

The higher portion of the musical scale is associated with 
the notes of brisk, gay, and joyous emotions, with the excep- 
tion of the extremes of pain, grief, and fear, which, from 
their preternaturally exciting power, compress and render 
rigid the organic parts that produce vocal sound, and cause 
the peculiarly shrill, convulsive cries and shrieks which ex- 
press those passions. 

To give the voice suppleness, pliancy, and mobility, much 
attention must be bestowed on practice for the regulation of 
pitch. The following examples should be carefully repeated 
in conjunction with the elements and detached words, till 
the " high pitch" oijoy is perfectly at command. 



132 ORTHOPHONY. 

EXAMPLES OF "HIGH" PITCH. 

1. Delight. 

V Ode to a Skylark. — Shelley. 

("Expulsive Orotund:" "Impassioned" Force? Expulsive "Median 

Stress.") 

Hail, to thee, blithe spirit ! 

Bird thou never wert, 
That from Heaven, or near it, 

Pourest thy full heart 
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. 

Higher still, and higher, 

From the earth thou springest, 
Like a cloud of fire ; 

The deep blue thou wingest, 
And singing still, dost soar, and soaring, ever singest,. 

2. 

("Pure Tone:" " High " Pitch : " Loud " Force. ) 
The Ode on the Passions. — Collins. 
But oh I how altered was its sprightlier tone, 
When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue, -r- 

Her bow against her shoulder flung, 
Her buskins gemmed with morning dew, — 

Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung, 
The hunter's call, to Faun and Dryad known. 

The oak-crowned Sisters, and their chaste-eyed Queen, 
Satyrs and Sylvan boys, were seen 
Peeping from forth their alleys green : 
Brown Exercise rejoiced to hear, 
And Sport leaped up, and seized his beechen spear. 

Last came Joy's ecstatic trial : — 
He, with viny crown advancing, 
First to tho lively pipe his hand addressed ; — 
But soon ho saw the brisk awakening viol, 



PITCH. 133 

Whose sweet entrancing voice he loved the best. 

They would have thought, who heard the strain, 
They saw in Tempe's vale her native maids, 
Amidst the festal sounding shades 

To some unwearied minstrel dancing; 
"While, as his flying fingers kissed the strings, 

Love framed with Mirth a gay fantastic round, — 

Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound ; 
And he, amid his frolic play, 
As if he would the charming air repay, 
Shook thousand odors from his dewy wings. 

3. Exultation. 
("Quality,'' Force, and "Stress," as above, but more fully given.) 
\/ The Hymn of the Stars. — Bryant. 
Away, away ! through the wide, wide sky, — 
The fair blue fields that before us lie, — 
Each sun with the worlds that round him roll, 
Each planet, poised on her turning pole, 
With her isles of green, and her clouds of white, 
And her waters that lie like fluid light ! 

For the source of glory uncovers his face, 
And the brightness o'erflows unbounded space ; 
And we drink, as we go, the luminous tides 
In our ruddy air and our blooming sides ; 
Lo I yonder the living splendors play ! 
Away! on our joyous path, away! 

Away, away ! In our blossoming bowers, 

In the soft air wrapping these spheres of ours, 

In the seas and fountains that shine with morn, 

See Love is brooding, and Life is born ; 

And breathing myriads are breaking from night ; 

To rejoice like us, in motion and light 1 



I,w 



134 ORTHOPHONY. 

v. "vert high" pitch. 

The extreme of the upper part of the musical scale, as 
far as it is practicable to individuals, in the management of 
the voice, is the natural range of pitch for the utterance of 
ecstatic and rapturous or uncontrollable emotion. It belongs, 
accordingly, to high-wrought lyric and dramatic passages, in 
strains of joy, grief, astonishment, delight, tenderness, and 
the hysterical extremes of passionate emotion generally. 

The following examples, together with the elements and 
selected words, should be repeated, as daily exercises, for 
the purpose of training the organs to easy execution on 
high notes. 

EXAMPLES OF "VERY HIGH" PITCH. 

1. Ecstatic Joy. 

("Expulsive Orotund:" "Sustained" Force of Calling and Shouting: 
"Median Stress.") 

Song of the Valkyriur or Fatal Sisters to the Doomed War- 
rior. — Mrs. Ilemans. 

Lo ! the mighty sun looks forth ! — 
Arm ! thou leader of the north ! 
Lo! the mists of twilight fly — 
We must vanish, thou must die ! 



By the sword, and by the spear, 
By the hand that knows not fear, 
Sea-king ! nobly shalt thou fall ! 
There is joy in Odin's hall ! 

™\. A-K 2. Astonishment. 

\ (" Expulsive Orotund : " " Impassioned " Force : " Thorough Stress." ) 

Dromio of Syracuse, on his being mistaken for his brother.— 

Shakespeare. 

This drudge laid claim to me ; called me Dromio ; swore 
I was assured to her ; told me what private marks I had 
about me, as the mark of my shoulder, the mole in my 



PITCH. 135 

neck, the great wart on my left arm, — that I, amazed, ran 
from her as a witch ; and I think, if my breast had not 
been made of faith, and my heart of steel, she had trans- 
formed me to a curtail-dog, and made me turn i' the wheel. 

3. Impassioned Lyric Style. 

( ' ' Aspirated and: Harsh Quality : " " Im passioned ' ' Force : ' ' Radical 
^J Stress.") 

Alexander's Feast. — Dryden. 

Now strike the golden lyre again ; 

A londer yet, and yet a louder strain. 

Break his bands of sleep asunder, 

And rouse him like a rattling peal of thunder. 

Hark, hark, the horrid sound 

Has raised up his head : 

As awaked from the dead, 

And amazed, he stares around. 

Revenge ! revenge ! Timotheus cries, 

See the furies arise ! 

See the snakes that they rear, 

How they hiss in their hair ! 

And the sparkles that flash from their eyes ! 

Behold a ghastly band, 

Each a torch in his hand ! 

Those are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain, 

And unburied remain, 

Inglorious on the plain : 

Give the vengeance due 

To the valiant crew. 

Behold-how they toss their torches on high, 

How they point to the Persian abodes, 

And glittering temples of their hostile gods. 

The princes applaud with a furious joy ; 

And the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy; 

Thais led the way, 

To light him to his prey, 

And, like another Helen, fired another Troy. 



136 ORTHOPHONY. 

4. Frenzy. 

("Asmrated Quality:" "Impassioned " Force: "Thorough Stress.") 
\J Rhyme of the Duchess May. — Mrs. Browning. 
The horse in stark despair, with his front hoofs poised 
in air, 
On the last verge, rears amain. 

And he hangs, he rocks between — and his nostrils curdle 

in, — 
And he shivers head and hoof — and the flakes of foam fall 

off; 
And his face grows fierce and thin ! 

And a look of human woe, from his staring eyes did go, — 
And a sharp cry uttered he, in a foretold agony, 
Of the headlong death below. 

The habit of analyzing passages so as to recognize read- 
ily their predominating feeling and, consequently, their 
" pitch," is one which every earnest student of elocution 
will cultivate with persevering diligence till he finds himself 
able, from a single glance at the first line of a piece, to de- 
termine its gradation of feeling, and its true note in utter- 
ance. 

Besides practising the examples of " pitch," in the order 
in which they occur in the preceding pages, it will con- 
tribute much to facility in changing the " pitch " of the 
voice, if the student will vary the 'order of the examples, so 
as to become accustomed to pass easily from one point of 
the scale to another, as from highest to lowest, and the re- 
verse. The practice of the elements and of words should 
always be added to the repetition of the examples. 

" TRANSITION " IN PITCH. 

The object of practice in " transition " in pitch is to se- 
cure the power of striking instantly and accurately the ooi> 



PITCH. - 137 

trast in pitch for expressive effect. As a drill exercise for 
the ear, as well as for the voice, it is of the utmost impor- 
tance. The precise divisions in pitch should be very accu- 
rately marked. 

* EXAMPLES OF " TRANSITION," IN PITCH. 
1. From Joy to Grave and Pathetic Emotion* 
(From " High " to " Low " Pitch.) 
The Voice of Spring. — Mrs. Hemans. 

" High:' 
Away from the dwellings of care-worn men, 
The waters are sparkling in grove and glen ! 
Away from the chamber and sullen hearth, 
The young leaves are danciug in breezy mirth ! 
Their light stems thrill to the wild-wood strains ; 
And youth is abroad in my green domains ! — 

" Low." 
But ye — ye are changed since ye met me last ! 
There is something bright from your features passed ! 
There is that come over your brow and eye, 
Which speaks of a world where the flowers must die ! — 
Ye smile ! but your smile hath a dimness yet : — 
Oh ! what have ye looked on since last we met ? 

v 2. From Horror to Tranquillity. 
(From "Very Low" to "Middle" Pitch.) 
Stanzas from a Russian Poet. — Bowring. 

" Very Low." 

How frightful the grave ! how deserted and drear ! 
With the howls of the storm-wind, the creaks of the bier 
And the white bones all clattering together ! 

" Middle " Pitch. 
How peaceful the grave ! its quiet how deep : 
Its zephyrs breathe calmly ; and soft is its sleep, 
And flowrets perfume it with ether. 



138 . ORTHOPHONY. 

3. From Rcupture to Grief, 

(From " Very High " to " Low" Pitch.) 

Stanzas from Mrs. Hemans. 

" Very High." 

Ring joyous chords ! — ring out again ! 

A swifter still and a wilder strain ! 

And bring fresh wreaths ! — we will banish all 

Save the free in heart from our festive hall. 

On through the maze of the fleet dance, on ! 

"Low." 
But where are the young and the lovely ? — gone ! 
Where are the brows with the red rose crowned, 
And the floating forms with the bright zone bound ? 
And the waving locks and the flying feet, 
That still should be where the mirthful meet ? — 
They are gone ! — they are fled, they are parted all. — 
Alas ! the forsaken hall ! 

4. From Triumph and Exultation, to Grave, Pathetic, and 
Solemn feeling, and thence returning to Triumph and 
Exultation. 

(From " High " to " Low " and thence to " High " Pitch.) 
" High." 

Mark ye the flashing oars, 

And the spears that light the deep ? 

How the festal sunshine pours 
Where the lords of battle sweep ! 

Each hath brought back his shield ; — 

Maid, greet thy lover home ! 
Mother, from that proud field, 

Io ! thy son is come ! 

" Low." 

Who murmured of the dead ? 
Hush ! boding voice. We know 



PITCH. 139 

That many a shining head 
Lies in its glory low. 

Breathe not those names to-day. 

They shall have their praise ere long, 
And a power all hearts to sway, 

In ever-burning song. 

" High." 

But now shed flowers, pour wine, 

To hail the conquerors home ! 
Bring wreaths for every shrine ! — 

Io ! they come, they come ! 

5. From Tranquillity to Joy and Triumph, Awe, Scorn, 
Awe, Horror, Exultation, Defiance, Awe, — succes- 
sively. 

Israel's Triumph over the Kino of Babylon.— Isaiah. 
[ Tranquillity : " Middle " Pitch :] The whole earth is at 
rest, and is quiet : — \Joy and Triumph : " High " Pitch .•] 
they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at 
thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid 
down, no feller is come up against us. — \_Awe : " Low " 
Pitch :] Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet 
thee at thy coming : it stirreth up the dead for thee, even 
all the chief ones of the earth : it hath raised up from their 
thrones all the kings of the nations. — \Narrative : " Mid- 
dle " Pitch :] All they shall speak, and say unto thee, — 
\_Scorn: "High" Pitch:"] Art thou also become weak 
as we ? Art thou become like unto us ? — \_Awe : " Low " 
Pitch :] Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the 
noise of thy viols : — \_Horror : " Very Low " Pitch :~\ the 
worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. — 
[Exultation : " Middle " Pitch:] How art thou fallen from 
heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning ! how art thou cut 
down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations ! — 



140 ORTHOPHONY. 

\_DeJiance : " High " Pitch :] For thou hast said in thy 
heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne 
above the stars of God. I will ascend above the heights of 
the clouds ; I will be like the Most High. — [Awe : "Low" 
Pitch :] Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the 
sides of the pit. 

The same " transitions " of " pitch " which occur in pass- 
ing from one paragraph or stanza to another, may also 
take place within the limits of a single sentence, if the feel- 
ing obviously changes from clause to clause, — as in the 
following extract. 

Reverence and Awe. 

(" Low" Pitch: rising gradually to "Middle," in the fourth line.) 

Adoration. — Porteous. 

O Thou ! whose balance does the mountains weigh, 
Whose will the wild tumultuous seas obey, 
Whose breath can turn those watery worlds to flame, 
That flame to tempest, and that tempest tame, — 

Deepest Reverence and Awe. 
("Very Low" Pitch.) 
Earth's meanest son, all trembling, prostrate falls, 

Reverence and Adoration. 
("Low" Pitch.) 
And on the boundless of thy goodness calls. 

Solemnity. 
(Pitch still Lower.) 
May sea and land, and earth and heaven be joined, 
To bring the eternal Author to my mind ! 

Awe. 
("Very Low" Pitch.) 
When oceans roar or thunders roll, 
May thoughts of Thy dread vengeance shake my soul J 



PITCH. 141 



THE " PHRASES ' OF " SENTENTIAL MELODY." 

In closer distinctions of melody and pitch, we pass from 
clauses to phrases. The "melody " of phrases and their rel- 
ative "pitch," involve topics too numerous and too intricate 
for discussion in an elementary work. These subjects will 
be found fully explained in the work of Dr. Rush. We 
will select a few points of practical application and of pri- 
mary importance. The " phrases of melody," in a sentence, 
admit of being arranged in two classes : 1st, those which 
prevail in the body of a sentence ; 2d, that which occupies 
the last three syllables of a sentence, and forms the cadence. 
The former is termed the " current melody ; " the latter, 
the " melody of the cadence." 

The investigation of melody and pitch, in phrases, re- 
quires attention to the important distinction of " discrete " 
and " concrete " sounds. " Discrete " sounds consist of 
notes produced at intervals, or in close succession, but in 
detached and distinct forms, as in running up or down the 
keys of a piano, or the chords of a harp ; or producing sim- 
ilar sounds on a violin, by twitching the strings with the 
finger, instead of gliding over them with the bow ; or in 
the laughing utterance of delighted surprise, as when we 
laugh a "fifth" or an "octave" up the scale, on the inter- 
rogatory interjection " eh ? " or when, in the laughing utter- 
ance of derision, we run down the scale, in the same way, in 
the long-drawn sound of the word " no I " In these last- 
mentioned instances, every note is executed by a distinct 
and separate little jet, or tittle, of voice. To such sounds, 
then, the word " discrete " in its proper etymological sense, 
may be justly applied, as intimating that they exist apart. 

" Concrete " sounds, on the other hand, are produced by 
a succession of notes gliding into each other so impercepti- 
bly to the ear, that they cannot be detached from each 
other ; as when the violinist, in playful execution, some- 
times makes his instrument seem to hold dialogue, in the 



142 ORTHOPHONY. 

tones of question and answer, by drawing the bow across 
the strings, while he slips his left hand, upward and down- 
ward, so as to shorten or lengthen the strings, and thus 
cause the sounds to glide up or down the scale, in one con- 
tinuous stream of " mewing" sound. A parallel illustration 
may be drawn from the natural use of the voice, when we 
pronounce the interrogatory " eh? " of surprise, in a se- 
rious mood, but with great earnestness, — merely causing 
the voice to slide smoothly up the scale, through the inter- 
val of a " fifth " or an " octave," or when we utter the word 
" no / " in the tone of full and bold denial, and make the 
voice sweep continuously down the scale, through a similar 
interval. 

In the " current melody " of a sentence, every syllable 
includes a " radical " and a " vanishing movement " united, 
which, in unimpassioned expression, occupy the space on 
the scale of one tone, or pass from one note to the next 
above it on the scale. The succession of " concrete " tones 
is uniformly at the interval of a tone, upward or downward 
on the scale, as the case may be. The rise of voice within 
each syllable may therefore be called its " concrete pitch ; " 
and the place that each syllable takes above or below 
another, the " radical pitch." 

The " melody of phrases " prescribes no fixed succession 
of " radical pitch," although it usually avoids a repetition of 
the same " radical pitch," unless for special effect, in ex- 
treme cases ; and it forbids the see-saw tone of exact al- 
ternation, or measured recurrence of " radical pitch." 

The convenience of using specific and exact terms, in 
relation to " melody " and " pitch," as they exist in speech, 
renders the following distinctions important to the student 
of elocution. 

When two or more " concretes " occur in succession, on 
the same " radical pitch," they form a " monotone," or pro- 
duce upon the ear the effect of unity or sameness of sound 
or tone. This concrete pitch is often used in conjunction 



PITCH. 143 

with the low notes of awe, sublimity, and solemnity, for im- 
pressive effect, resembling that of the deep tolling of a 
large bell. " Monotone," however, is not to be confounded 
with monotony, the besetting fault of school reading, and 
which consists chiefly in omitting or slighting the " radical 
stress," and sometimes abolishing even the " radical move- 
ment " of elements. " Monotone " is the sublimest poetic 
effect of elocution : monotony one of the worst defects. 

When the " radical pitch " is one note above or below 
that of the preceding tone, it is termed a fi Rising " or a 
" Falling Ditone." When the radicals of three successive 
" concretes " rise or fall they become a " Rising " or a 
" Falling Tritone." When there is a series of three or 
more, alternately a tone above and below each other, they 
form an " Alternate Phrase." 

When three " concretes " gradually descend in their 
" radical pitch " at the close of a sentence, the " vanish " 
of the last, instead of ascending, descends ; so as to give 
the peculiar closing effect to the cadence. This descent is, 
accordingly, for distinction's sake, termed the " Triad of 
the Cadence." 

It is in this peculiar " phrase " of " sentential melody," 
that the very general fault popularly called " a tone " ex- 
ists. The common style of cadence, instead of being 
spoken, is usually such as causes it to be sung, more or less, 
by deviating from the melody of the " triad," and, at the 
same time, losing " radical," and assuming " median stress," 
accompanied by a half-musical wave or undulation of voice. 
A clear, distinct, and exact succession of " radical pitch," 
in the form of the " triad," would in most cases destroy 
the false tone, and impart to reading more resemblance than 
it often possesses to speech or to conversation. 

The student will derive much assistance, in this branch 
of elocution, from repeating the " tonic elements " and ap- 
propriate words selected from the exercises in the chapter 
on enunciation, with a view, first, to observe the " con- 



144 ORTHOPHONY. 

crete " character of the elementary sounds of speech in 
their initial " radical " and rising "vanish." Let letters, 
syllables, and words then be practised, successively in the 
forms of the phrases of the " monotone," " falling " and 
" rising," " ditone," and " tritone," and the " triad of the 
cadence." 

The illustration below, selected from the work of Dr. 
Rush, will suggest the idea how the exercises in this depart- 
ment may be practised in classes, by the use of the chart of 
exercises, or of the black-board. 

The object in view, in the use of such diagrams as the 
following, is not to exhibit the strict application of any rule 
or principle of elocution, but merely to aid the mind in at- 
taining an exact apprehension of the nature and character 
of the elements of vocal sound, in certain relations. It is 
not meant that either the couplet from Pope's Homer, 
which is introduced in the following illustration, or the lines 
which follow it, must be read with the precise melody ex- 
hibited in the diagram, or that they cannot be appropriately 
read with any other. The design of this exemplification is 
merely to show the different forms of " radical pitch," as 
they occur in the actual use of the voice, and to render the 
practice of them definite and exact. The repetition of the 
exercise will render the ear accurate and discriminating, and 
will preserve the student from inadvertently contracting the 
false intonation arising from the general neglect of this part 
of elocution, and from the impossibility of discussing or ex- 
plaining its peculiarities till the means of instruction were 
furnished by exact analysis and precise nomenclature, — 
benefits for which science and education stand equally in- 
debted to the discriminating genius and philosophic investi- 
gation of Dr. Rush. 

" That quarter most the skilful Greeks annoy, 



•L-«l «! «L d-« 



Monotone. .Falling Ditone. Rising Tritone. Rising Ditone, 



THE SLIDE. 145 

Where yon wild fig trees join the walls of Troy." 



i «< », W * - «) * - * «J ^ 



Falling Tritone. Alternation. Triad of the Cadence. 

To secure the full benefit of discrimination and of exact 
practice, it will be a useful exercise to repeat the phrases 
of melody in the diagram, on the " tonic " and other ele- 
ments, on syllables, and on the following couplets. 

1. " Lo ! the poor Indian, whose untutored mind 
Sees God in tempests, hears him in the wind." 1 

2. " There, where a few torn shrubs the place disclose, 
The village preacher's modest mansion rose." 

3. " Thus every good his native wilds impart, 
Imprints the patriot passion on his heart." 

4. " The conscious swains, rejoicing in the sight 
Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light." 

The " Slide." 

The " slide " or " inflection " furnishes still another di- 
vision of " melody " for study. It indicates simply the ex- 
tent of the upward or downward movement of the voice 
from its " radical " to its " vanish." Being concrete in its 
movement, it is termed properly the " slide " of the voice. 

The simplest exemplification occurs where the voice is sus- 
pended on account of some interruption on the part of the 
reader or speaker, as on the word indeed when the sentence is 
suddenly broken off and left incomplete : as, "There is, in- 
deed," — This suspended effect constitutes what is termed 

1 The above example is intentionally introduced as one of cadence for 
the sake of contrast with the tone of continuance, which belongs to it in 
the original text. 

10 



146 ORTHOPHONY. 

the rise of the " second." Now if we imagine the same 
word used as inquiry, " Did you say indeed ? " we shall find 
a more decided rise of the voice through the musical in- 
terval of the " third." Let us now add earnestness to the 
inquiry as in the tone of surprise, " Indeed ! can it be ? " and 
we observe that the rise of the voice is carried through a 
wider interval in the ascent — that of the musical fifth. 
Once more, in the tone of utter amazement we note that the 
interval of the voice is still wider, and carried through the 
entire scope of the octave. We find, then, these distinct 
intervals clearly defined ; the " second " for suspended 
sense, the " third " for unimpassioned inquiry, the " fifth " 
for earnest interrogation, and the " octave " for the inquiry 
when prompted by the feeling of amazement. The voice 
seeks also corresponding intervals in its descent in the ex- 
pression of the same states of feeling. The fall of the 
" second " would be heard where the sense is not complete, 
or when the utterance of. grave or solemn thought, the drift 
of the expression, is suddenly suspended. Let us suppose 
the full sentence for expression to be in the words, " Death is 
indeed a solemn mystery," an interruption occurring after 
indeed will show the downward " second " as distinguished 
from the more animated effect of the upward " second," 
where the utterance is more animated or cheerful. If we 
use the same thought emphasized somewhat by placing in- 
deed at the end of the sentence, " Death is a solemn mys- 
tery, indeed" we have the fall of the "third" as the interval. 
And still employing the same word in earnest and emphatic 
assertion, we have the fall of the " fifth " in the saying of 
Hamlet, " Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me." The 
fall of the " octave " shows the impassioned assertion of 
Othello when repeating in amazement Iago's " Indeed ! " 
he asserts, passionately, " aye, indeed ! " In the latter exam- 
ple we have the slide of the " octave " — the rising on the 
first " Indeed ! " and the falling through the saoae interval 
on the repetition. 



THE SLIDE. 147 

We discover, then, that there are these well defined inter- 
vals of the second, third, fifth, and octave, with rising and 
falling slide ; or, to divest the definitions of the scientific 
nomenclature, we may denominate them the suspended, un- 
impassioned, earnest, and impassioned slides. The intervals 
of the remainder of the scale are not heard in speech, ex- 
cept of the " seventh," when it becomes the minor octave 
for pathos, and of the "fourth " and " sixth," as in inebriety 
— the natural defect of a physical inability to complete to 
the ear, or with the vocal organs, the ordinary intervals of 
colloquial or impassioned expressions. In certain abnor- 
mal conditions of feeling, the unusual utterance of the slide 
of the double octave might be heard, as in Cooper's fiendish 
shriek in the words of Shylock : " If I can catch him once 
upon the hip ; " where, according to actual musical nota- 
tion, he would rise two octaves from the low growl of deep- 
seated revenge to the quivering shriek of malice on the 
word hip. Or, as in an instance known to the compiler, of 
a lady who, attempting to scream out to a thief, was over- 
come with horror, and the voice sank two octaves from the 
piercing scream of anger to palsied horror. 

The " slides " of the voice have three important and dis- 
tinct offices ; and these produce the three principal forms of 
the " slide : " 1st, the " slide of passion or emotion ; " 2d, 
the " distinctive slide," or that which is addressed to the 
understanding and the judgment, as in designation, compari- 
son, and contrast ; 3d, the " mechanical slide," which be- 
longs to the mechanism of a sentence, and the local position 
of phrases ; as in the special instance of the partial cadence, 
which takes place when a distinct portion of the sense is 
completed, although the whole sentence is not finished ; as 
in this instance : " Let your companions be select ; let them 
be such as you can esteem for their good qualities, and 
whose virtuous example you may emulate." We have an- 
other example in the " triad" of the \ full and final cadence 
falling entirely within one syllable, as in the following em- 
phatic negation \ — 



148 ORTHOPHONY. 

" No ; by the rood, not so I " 

Another " slide " which serves a mechanical purpose, 
rather than one of thought or feeling, is the " penultimate 
slide " of most sentences, which serves the purpose of rais- 
ing the voice deliberately and distinctly, previous to its final 
descent at the close of the sentence, and thus renders the 
cadence more perceptible and more impressive ; as in the 
following example : " Let the young go out, under the de- 
scending sun of the year, into the fields of nature." 

ANALYSIS OF " SLIDES." 

The following diagram may be used as an ocular sugges- 
tion to prompt and regulate the ear, each character being 
intended to represent the sound of an element, syllable, 
or word. The exercise commences with a slide of the 
" second," the usual interval, in " concrete pitch," between 
the " radical " and the "vanish " of an element, as uttered 
in the common progression of the unemphatic and inexpres- 
sive " melody " of speech or reading, and extends through 
all other intervals to that of the "octave." The forms 
which are of most frequent occurrence in reading, are re- 
peated separately. 

The bulb of each character in the diagram represents the 
" radical," the stem, the " vanish." 

But it will be of great use, as a matter of practice with a 
view to facility in the command of the voice, to add to the 
sound of the " slide," the effects of " effusion," " expulsion," 
and " explosion ;" " radical," "median," " vanishing," " com- 
pound," " thorough stress," and " tremor ; " together with 
those of " pure tone," " orotund," and " aspiration ; " and 
all stages of force from the softest " subdued " to that oi 
" shouting." 



THE SLIDE. 149 

I. Scale of Progressive " Upward and Downward Slides: " 
from the " Second " to the " Octave." 

II. "Upward Slide " o/ tf*e " Second." 



III. " Upward Slide " of the " Third." 

IV. " Upward Slide " of the « Fifth." 

J J J J J J J J 

V. "Upward Slide" of the " Octave." 



J J J J J 




VI. Alternate "Slides " o/ ^e " Third" 

J *\ J 5 J «S g ^ EE 

VII. Alternate " Slides " of the " Fifth." 

J y J *\ J *\ J 5 : 

VIII. Alternate " Slides" of the " Octave." 

■ j § j g j g ^ ^ 



150 ORTHOPHONY. 

I. THE SLIDE OF EMOTION. 

The " slide of emotion " extends through an interval cor- 
responding in every instance to the intensity of feeling 
implied in " expressive " words, and may, accordingly, be 
measured in most instances by the " third," the " fifth," or 
the "octave." 

Strong emotions are expressed chiefly by the " downward 
slide ; " except surprise, and earnest, or impassioned interro- 
gation, which usually adopt the " upward slide " of the 
"fifth" or the "octave." 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Impetuous Courage and Fierce Determination. 

("Orotund" and "Aspirated Pectoral Quality:" Shouting: Explosive 
"Radical" and Expulsive "Median Stress: " "High" Pitch: Down- 
ward Fifth on the emphatic words.) 

Richard to his Troops. — Shakespeare. 
A thousand hearts are great within my bosom : 
Advance our standards, set upon our foes ! 
Our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George, 
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons. 
Upon them ! Victory sits on our helms. 

2. Impassioned Burst of Scorn. 

("Aspirated Pectoral and Guttural Quality : " "Violent " Force : Explosive 
" Radical Stress : " " High " Pitch. The exemplification occurs in the re- 
ply of Coriolanus, which contains the "downward slide" of the "Oc- 
tave " in the words "Measureless liar! " and "Boy ! " and the "down- 
ward Fifth " on the other emphatic words.) 



Coriolanus. — < 

Aufidius. Name not the god, 
Thou boy of tears. 

Coriolanus. Measureless liar ! thou hast made my heart 
Too great for what contains it. 
Boy ! Cut me to pieces, Volscians : men and lads, 
Stain all your edges on me. Boy ! — 



THE SLIDE. 151 

If you have writ your annals true, 't is there 
That, like an eagle in a dovecot, I 
Fluttered your Volscians in Corioli : 
A16ne I did it. — Boy ! 

3. Anger and Fierce Interrogation. 

("Aspirated Pectoral and Guttural Quality:" "Impassioned" Force: 
"Radical and Compound Stress: " " High " Pitch: Octave ou the word 
" Geese: " the Fifth on the remaining emphatic words.) 

Macbeth and Servant — Shakespeare. 

Macb. Where gott'st thou that goose look ? 

Serv. There is ten thousand — 

Macb. Geese, villain ? 

Serv. Soldiers, sir. 

Macb. Gb, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, 
Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch ? 
Death of thy soul ! those linen cheeks of thine 
Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face ? 

Serv. The English force, so please you. 

Macb. Take thy face hence. 

4. Fierce Impatience. 

("Aspirated Quality:" "Violent" Force: "High" Pitch: Percussive 
"Radical and Compound Stress." The slide of the Fifth occurs after 
the first question in the inquiries of King Richard.) 

Richard III. — Shakespeare. 

K. Rich. Once more, what news ? 

Stanley. Richmond is on the seas. 

K. Rich. There let him sink, and be the seas on him ! 
White-livered runagate, what doth he there ? 

Stanley. I know not, mighty sovereign, but by guess. 

K. Rich. Well, as you guess ? 

Stanley. Stirred up by Dorset, Buckingham, and Mor- 
ton, 
He makes for England, here to claim the crown. 

K. Rich. Is the chair empty ? Is the sword unswayed ? 



152 ORTHOPHONY. 

Is the king de£d, the empire unpossessed ? 
"What heir of York is there alive, but we ? 
And who is England's king, but great York's heir ? 
Then, tell me, what makes he upon the seas ? 

Stanley. Unless for that, my liege, I cannot guess. 

K. Rich. Unless for that he comes to be your liege, 
You cannot guess wherefore the Welshman comes. 
Thou wilt revolt, and fly to him, I fear. 

Stanley. No, mighty liege ; therefore mistrust me not. 

K. Rich. Where is thy power, then, to beat him back? 
Where be thy tenants, and thy followers ? 
Are they not now upon the western shore, 
Safe-conducting the rebels from their ships ? 

Stanley. No, my good lord ; my friends are in the north. 

K. Rich. Cold friends to me ; what do they in the n5rth, 
When they should serve their sovereign in the west ? 

5. Eager Inquiry and Emphatic Assertion. 

(" Aspirated and Orotund Quality:" "Suppressed" Force: "High" 
Pitch: "Radical Stress." The questions of Hamlet exemplify the 
rising Fifth — the replies the falling. 

Hamlet and Horatio. — Shakespeare. 

Ham. Armed, say you ? 

All. Armed my lord. 

Ham. From top to toe ? 

All. My lord, from head to foot. 

Ham. Then saw you not 

His face ? 

Hor. Oh, yes, my lord ; he wore his beaver up. 

Ham. What, looked he fr6wningly ? 

Hor. A countenance mora 

In sorrow than in anger. 

Ham, Pale or red ? 

Hor, Nay, very pale. 

Ham. And fixed his eyes upon you? 

Hor, Most constantly. 






THE SLIDE. 153 

6. Assumed Surprise and Incredulity after the first passage 
of Iago. Rising and falling Fifth on the emphatic 
words of Othello. 

("Aspirated Quality," and "Impassioned " Force; " Compound Stress " 
chiefly for Othello. Iago, "Pure Tone," " Moderate " Force.) 

Iago and Othello. — Shakespeare. 

Iago. Did Michael Cassio, when you wooed my lady, 
Know of your love ? 

Oth. Oh, yes ; and went between us very oft. 

Iago. Indeed ? 

Oth. Indeed ! ay, indeed. — Discern'st thou aught in 
that? 
Is he not honest ? 

Iago. Honest, my lord ? 

Oth. Xj, honest. 

Iago. My lord, for aught I know. 

Oth. What dost thou think ? 

Iago. Think, my lord ? 

Oth. Think, my lord I 

By heaven he echoes me, 
As if there were some monster in his thought 
Too hideous to be shown. — Thou dost mean something ; 
I heard thee say but now — Thou lik'dst not that, 
When Cassio left my wife. What did'st not like ? 
And when I told thee, he was of my counsel 
In my whole course of wooing, thou cry'dst Indeed ? 
And didst contract and purse thy brow together, 
As if thou then hadst shut up in thy brain 
Some horrible conceit. If thou dost love me, 
Show me thy thought. 



154 ORTHOPHONY. 

7. Remorse. 

[" Orotund Quality : " " Suppressed " Force : "Low " Pitch ; " Vanishing 

Stress.") 

Cassio. — Shakespeare. 

Reputation, reputation, reputation ! Oh, I have lost my 

reputation ! I have lost the immortal part, sir, of myself, 

and what remains is bestial, — My reputation, Iago, my 

reputation. 

Dnink, and speak parrot ? and squabble ? swagger ? 
swear? and discourse fustian with one's own shadow?-— Oh, 
thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be 
known by, let us call thee — devil ! 

8. Exception. — Surprise, Earnest and Impassioned Inter* 
rogation. 

("Aspirated Pectoral Quality:" "Declamatory", Force: "Compound 
Stress:" "High" Pitch: "Upward Fifth.") 

Extract from Chatham. 

Can ministers still presume to expect suppdrt in their 

infatuation ? Can parliament be so dead to its dignity and 

its duty as to give its support to measures thus obtruded 

and f dreed upon it ? 

Cicero's Accusation of Verres. 
Is it come to this ? Shall an inferior magistrate, a gov- 
ernor, who holds his whole power of the Roman people, in 
a Roman prdvince, within sight of Italy, bind, scourge, 
torture with fire and red-hot plates of iron, and at last put 
to the infamous death of the cross, a Roman citizen ? 

II. THE " DISTINCTIVE " SLIDE. 

This slide is used not for purposes of passion or emotion, 
but for suggestions connected with the understanding and 
judgment, — that which may be termed intellectual, not im* 
passioned, expression. 



THE SLIDE. 155 

The "downward distinctive slide " extends, usually, 
through the interval of a "third." It is used, first, for 
mere designation, as in announcing a subject or topic, in di- 
dactic style, in introducing a person or an event in narrative, 
or an -object, in descriptive style ; as in the following exam- 
ples : " The duties of the citizens of a republic formed the 
subject of the orator's address." "Among the eminent 
men of the period of the American Revolution, Benjamin 
Franklin held a conspicuous place." "From the date of 
the American Revolution, commenced a new era in the 
history of man." " The dazzling summits of the snow- 
capt mountains in the distance, threw an air of enchantment 
over the scene." 

This slide is used also, for distinction in contrasts, as in 
the latter of two correspondent or antithetic words or 
phrases, in which the contrast is exactly balanced ; thus, " I 
would neither be rich nor poor," or when the antithesis is 
unequal and one word or phrase is intentionally made more 
expressive than the other, in which case the more emphatic 
word or phrase takes the downward slide : thus, " I would 
rather be rich, than poor." 

EXAMPLES OF "DISTINCTIVE SLIDES." 
I. Simple Designation. 

1. Didactic Style. 

" The progress of the Italian opera, in this country, will 
form the subject of this essay." 

" The downfall of the Roman empire was the next great 
theme chosen by that eminent historian." 

" The origin of the distinctions of rank in society, forms 
one of the most interesting topics of historical investiga- 
tion." 

2. Narrative Style. 

" The conspiracy of Catiline, as related by Sallust, was 
one of the most atrocious designs ever plotted by desperate 
and heartless villainy." 



156 ORTHOPHONY. 

" From the time when the people enjoyed the right of 
electing their tribunes, they fondly deemed their liberty se- 
cured against future encroachments." 

" The usurpation, as it has been termed, of Oliver Cr6m- 
well, rightly interpreted, is one of the most memorable of 
lessons to monarchy ever taught in the great school of his- 
tory." 

3. Descriptive Style. 

"A sudden shower puts an end to the gayety of the revel- 
lers, and sends them scampering in all directions for shel- 
ter." 

" The spots on the disc of the sim, which, in some in- 
stances, are larger than a continent or an ocean, with us, 
are, it is believed, openings in the luminous atmosphere of 
that body, exhibiting the dark surface beneath." 

" The first primrose of the spring was peeping through 
the shrivelled herbage at the roots of the hedge, along the 
side of the lane." 

II. Comparison and Antithesis, or Contrast* 
1. Comparison of Single Objects, 
" As is the beginning, so is the end." 

2. Double Comparison. 
" As we cannot discern the moving of the shadow over 
the 1 dial-plate ; so we cannot trace the progress of the mind 
in knowledge." 

3. Contrast of Single Objects. 
" 1 mingled freely with all classes of society, and nar- 
rowly observed the life of the peasant, as well as that of the 
prince." 

1 In double contrasts, the full "distinctive slide of the third " falls onty 
on the prominent parts of the contrast, the leading and determining words 
at the middle and the end of the sentence : the other pair of contrasted 
words are usually restricted to "falling" and "rising ditone," in theit 
" radical pitch." 






THE SLIDE. 157 

4. Double Contrast, or Antithesis. 

" As it is the part of justice never to do violence, it is 
that of mddesty never to commit offence." 

III. THE " MECHANICAL SLIDE." 

This form of the " slide " was defined as either " upward " 
or " downward ; " the former occurring at the close of the 
penultimate clause of a sentence, in preparation for its ca- 
dence ; the latter, when the cadence, from the absence of ac- 
cent on preceding syllables, descends in the form of a " con- 
crete downward slide " on a single sound. Another form of 
the " mechanical slide " is used to indicate, as mentioned be- 
fore, complete sense, or the finishing of an independent part 
of a sentence. Its effect, as a descent of voice, differs to the 
ear from that of the cadence, in the fact formerly stated, of 
its commencing and ceasing at a higher point of the scale, 
and from its not being preceded by the " penultimate slide," 
nor by a previous descent of voice which prepares the ear 
for the deliberate and full effect of cadence. It may be 
termed the " downward slide of complete sense " or " par- 
tial " cadence, as contrasted with its opposite, the " upward 
slide " of the " third," in incomplete sense, assumed, on 
purpose, in the middle of a sentence, to create expectation 
of further expression, for the completion of a thought ; or 
the " upward third " of unimpassioned interrogation, which 
also implies incomplete or undetermined sense. The " down- 
ward slide of complete sense " may be so denominated also, 
as contrasted with the mere effect of " concrete pitch," when 
a reader, as was formerly supposed for the purpose of il- 
lustration, is suddenly interrupted in the act of reading, and 
breaks off at an incomplete phrase. 



158 ORTHOPHONY. 

EXAMPLES. 
1. " Penultimate Slide." 
" The signification of our sentiments, made by tones and 
gestures, has this advantage above that made by words, that 
it is the language of nature." 

" In epic poetry, the English have only to boast of Spen- 
ser and Milton, who neither of them wanted either genius 
or learning to have been perfect p6ets ; and yet both of 
them are liable to many censures." 

2. "Partial Cadence" at the close of a clause which forms 
complete sense. 

" Of Law there can be no less acknowledged than that 
her seat is the bosom of God ; her voice the harmony of 
the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage ; 
the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not 
exempted from her power. Both angels and men, and 
creatures of what condition soever, though each in different 
sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her 
as the mother of their peace and joy." 

3. " Upward Slide " of incomplete or suspended sense. 

Description of Arcadia. — Sidney. 
There were hills which garnished their proud heights 
with stately trees : humble valleys, whose base estate seemed 
comforted with the refreshing of silver rivers: meadows, 
enamelled with all sorts of eye-pleasing flowers : thickets, 
which being lined with most pleasant shade were witnessed 
so too, by the cheerful disposition of many well-tuned birds: 
each pasture stored with sheep, feeding with sober security, 
while the pretty lambs with bleating oratory craved the 
dam's comfort : here a shepherd's boy piping, as though he 
should never be old ; there a j 7 oung shepherdess knitting, 
and withal singing, and it seemed that her voice comforted 
her hands to work, and her hands kept time to her voice- 






THE SLIDE. 159 

4. " Upward Slide " of " unimpassioned interrogation." 

" Have you heard the news ? Can we place any depen- 
dence on the report ? Is it probable that such an event 
could have been kept so long concealed ? " 

" Shall we adopt the measures proposed by this speaker? 
Are the arguments which he has advanced sufficient to pro- 
duce conviction ? Can we proceed with perfect confidence 
that we shall not have to retrace our steps ? " 

" Does the work relate to the interests of mankind ? Is 
its object useful, and its end moral ? Will it inform the un- 
derstanding, and amend the heart ? Is it written with free- 
dom and impartiality ? Does it bear the marks of honesty 
and sincerity ? Does it attempt to ridicule anything that is 
good or great ? Does a manly style of thinking predomi- 
nate in it ? Do reason, wit, humor, and pleasantry prevail 
in it ? Does it contain new and useful truths ? " 

THE " WAVE " OR " CIRCUMFLEX." 

One of the natural modes of " expression," in the "mel- 
ody of speech," is, in the language of peculiar emotion, or 
marked distinction, the use of a double " slide," the upward 
and the downward on the same sound. This mode of voice, 
called the " wave," is the characteristic utterance of sarcasm, 
mockery, raillery, and other intense and keen emotions : it 
marks, likewise, the expression of humor, irony, and wit, 
and pungent antithesis, whether serious or humorous. In 
its lowest perceptible form it aids the " swell " or " median 
stress " of solemn and sublime feeling. The " wave," like 
the single " slide," exists in all varieties of effect, from the 
slightest undulation of solemnity, in the interval of the 
" second " (or the " concrete " downward transition from 
one note of the scale to the next below), to the "third," 
"fifth," and " octave." The " wave" is termed " direct " when 
it slides first upward and then downward ; " inverted," when 
the " downward slide " precedes, and the " upward " follows. 



160 ORTHOPHONY. 

It is termed " equal " when the " slides " are of equal height 
and depth; the upward and the downward being each a 
"third," "fifth," or " octave : " "unequal," when the one 
" slide " traverses a wider interval of the scale than the 
other ; the upward, for example, being a " third," and the 
downward, an " octave." Grave and sedate feeling, or the 
affectation of such feeling, inclines to the use of the "equal 
wave ; " keen and sarcastic expression prefers the " unequal 
wave," from its greater pungency to the ear. 

This element of expression is one of the most impressive 
in the whole range of vocal effect. It gives, in its subdued 
form, a sustained dignity and grandeur to utterance, without 
which the long-drawn sounds of solemnity would sink into 
monotony and feebleness. Sarcastic and ironical expres- 
sion cannot be given without it. Close distinctions of sense 
and meaning lose their point and discrimination when de- 
prived of it. Wit and humor cease to exist to the ear, if 
the ambiguous and equivocal, or graphic effect of the 
" wave," is dropped. 

An intelligent and discriminating use of this element is 
indispensable, however, to its right effect. Adopted too 
frequently, and expressed too pointedly, it offends the ear ; 
as it implies a want of skill on the part of the reader or 
speaker, and a want of perception on that of the hearer. It 
forms, when given in excess, the striking feature in over- 
done emphasis, or that which seems, by its obtrusiveness, to 
forestall the judgment of the person who is addressed, and 
compel his perceptions. It is the usual resort of the author 
of a pun so poor, that, without his syllabic and waving 
enunciation, you could not have surmised its existence. 

The " wave " exists, sometimes, as a mere local accident 
of usage, in what is termed national accent. The dialects 
of Scotland and of New England furnish striking examples 
of the unmeaning prevalence of the " wave. " The popular 
" Yankee story," and, not unfrequently, the emphasis of 
well-educated people, abound in instances of this local into- 
nation. 



THE SLIDE. 161 

EXAMPLES. 
I. THE "EQUAL WAVE." 

Solemnity and Sublimity. 

("Effusive Orotund:" "Subdued" Force: full and prolonged "Mediqta 
Swell:" "Low" Pitch: " Equal wave of the Second." The "wave" so 
slight as barely to be discernible.) 

1. 

The Morning Hymn. — Milton. 

His 1 praise, ye w^nds that from four qi*arters blow, 

Breathe soft or loud ; and wave your tops, ye pines, 

With every plant, in sign of worship wave ! " 

2. 

Erom an Evening Hymn.-J7. M. Williams. 

While Thee I seek, protecting Power ! 

Be my vain washes stalled ; 
And may this consecrated hour 
With better hopes be filled ! 

Pointed Antithesis. Serious Expression, 

1. 

("Pure Tone:" "Animated" Force: "Radical and Median Stress:'* 
"Middle" Pitch: " Equal Wave of the Third.") 

Moral to a Fable. — Jane Taylor. 

Let any man resolve to do right 2 now, leaving 2 then to 
do as it can ; and if he were to live to the age of Methuse- 
lah, he would never do wrong. But the common error is 
to resolve to act right after breakfast, or after dinner, or to- 
morrow morning, or next time. But now, just now, this 
once, we must go on the same as ever. 

1 The "wave " occurs on the letters denoted by italic type. 
a The " direct wave " is marked by the usual circumflex accent, the " u& 
verted wave," by an inverted circumflex. 
U 



162 ORTHOPHONY. 



("Pure Tone:" "Moderate" Force, "Grave" Style: "Media* 
Stress : " " Middle " Pitch : " Equal Wave of the Third.") 

Chance. — Shakespeare. 

Alas ! the while ! 
If Hercules, and Lichas, play at dice 
Which is the better man, the greater throw 
May turn by fortune from the weaker hand. 

Pointed Antithesis. Half-humorous Style, 
3. 

("Pure Tone:" "Animated" Force: "Median Stress:" "Middle" 
Pitch: "Equal Wave of the Third.") 
Roman citizen, murmuring against the Patricians. — Shakes- 
peare. 

We are accounted poor citizens ; the patricians good. 
What authority surfeits on, would relieve lis. If they would 
yield us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we 
might guess they relieved us humanely ; but they think we 
are too dear : the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our 
misery, is an inventory to particularize their abundance : 
our sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this 
with our pikes, ere we become rakes : for the gods know I 
speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge. 

Wit. 

("Pure Tone," laughing voice: "Radical and Median Stress: " "High" 
Pitch : " Equal Wave of the Third.") 

Beatrice, speaking of Benedick. — Shakespeare. 

In our last conflict, four of his five wits went halting off, 

and now is the whole man governed with one : so that if he 

have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for 

a difference between himself and his horse ; for it is all the 

^it that he hath left, to be known a reasonable creature. 



THE SLIDE. 163 

Raillery. 

|" Pure Tone : " "Animated " Force : " Median Stress : " " High " Pitch: 
"Equal Wave of the Third.") 

Menenius, to the tribunes Brutus and Sicinius. — Shakespeare. 

You blame Marcius for being proud ? 

Brutus. We do it not alone, sir. 

Men. I know you can do very little alone ; for your 
helps are many ; or else your actions would grow wondrous 
single : your abilities are too infant-like, for doing much 
alone. You talk of pride : oh that you could turn your 
eyes toward the napes of your necks, and make but an in- 
terior survey of your good selves ! 

II. THE UNEQUAL WAVE. 

1. Irony and Derision. 

(" Pmre Tone : " " Animated " Force : " Stress " varying from "Radical " 
to "Median:" "High" Pitch: Unequal Wave of the "Third" and 
"Fifth.") 

The Critic. — < 



" How did Garrick speak the soliloquy, last night ? " 
" Oh ! against all rule, my lord, most ungrammatically ! 
Betwixt the substantive and the adjective, which should 
agree together in number, case, and gender, he made a breach 
thus — stopping, as if the point wanted settling ; and be- 
twixt the nominative case, which, your lordship knows, 
should govern the verb, he suspended his voice in the epi- 
logue, a dozen times, three seconds and three fifths by a 
stopwatch, my lord, each time." " Admirable grammarian ! 
But, in suspending his voice, was the sense suspended ? 
Did no expression of attitude or countenance fill up the 
chasm ? Was the eye silent ? Did you narrowly look ? " 
" I looked only at the stopwatch, my lord ! " " Excellent 
observer! " 



164 ORTHOPHONY. 

2. Contempt and Derision. 

(" Aspirated Quality : " "Impassioned" Force: "Median Stress:" 
" High " Pitch: " Unequal Waves.") 

NORVAL, IN THE QUAREEL WITH GLENALVON. — Home. 

And who is Norval in Glenalvon's eyes ? 
Glenalvon. A peasant's son, [3 & 5] x a wandering beg* 

gar boy I [3 & 8] 
[3 & 5] At best no more, — even if he speaks the 

truth. [3 & 5] 
[5 & 3] Hear him, my lord : he 's wondrous condescend- 

ing! [5&3] 
Mark the humility of shepherd Norval/ [3 & 

8] 

3. Scorn and Derision. 

("Aspirated Pectoral and Guttural Quality : " " Impassioned" Force: 
" Vanishing Stress : " " High " Pitch: "Unequal Wave.") 

CORIOLANUS, TO THE SENATORS, WHEN HIS ELECTION TO THE CONSU- 
LATE IS CONTRAVENED BY THE TRIBUNES BRUTUS AND SlCINIUS ; 
THE LATTER HAVING USED THE WORD " SHALL " IN HIS VETO. — ' 

Shakespeare. 

Shall/ [" semitone and octave."] 
They chose their magistrate ; 
And such a one as he, who puts his shall, [as before.] 
His popular shall, against a graver bench, [as before.] 
Than ever frowned in Greece ! 

4. Raillery. 

("Unequal Wave.") 

Gratiano to Shylock.— Shakespeare. 

Gratiano. O upright [5 & 3] judge ! Mark, Jew : — 

learned [3 & 5] judge ! 

1 The figures indicate the " unequal wave " of the " third " and "fifth," 
etc. In these exemplifications it is not intended that either a weaker or a 
stronger "expression," an inferior or a greater "wave," may not be ap- 
propriately used if it be not out of proportion to the context. In tha 
stronger expressions there might even be a prolonged and repeated, ©f 
" double " " wave," in highly animated reading. 



THE SLIDE. 165 

Shyloch Is that the law ? 

Portia. Thyself shalt see the act : 

For as thou urgest justice, be assur'd 
Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest. 

Gratiano. O learned [3 & 5] judge ! Mark, Jew : — 
a learned [3 & 5] judge ! 

Shyloch. I take this offer, then ; pay the bond thrice, 
And let the Christian go. 

Bassanio. Here is the money. 

Portia. Soft ! 

The Jew shall have all justice ; soft ! no haste : — 
He shall have nothing but the penalty. 

Gratiano. O Jew ! an upright [5 & 3] judge, a learned 
[5 & 3] judge ! 

The " Monotone." 

The term " monotone," when used in the language of 
elocution, must be understood as conventional, and em- 
ployed merely to avoid circumlocution. It implies the suc- 
cessive repetition of the same "radical" and "concrete" 
pitch, with the addition of a full and prolonged " median 
stress," so executed as to occupy the ear to the exclusion, 
nearly, of the " radical " and " vanish " of the sounds to 
which it is applied. The partial sameness of voice, thus 
produced, has been not inaptly compared, as mentioned be- 
fore, to the repeated sounds of a deep-toned bell ; as the 
" monotone " is usually the expression of low-pitched, sol- 
emn utterance, analogous in effect to the bell's perpetually 
recurring low note. The " monotone " is, in the true, 
natural, and unstudied use of the voice, — the invariable 
standard of elocution, — the style of aive, reverence, solem- 
nity, sublimity, grandeur, majesty, power, splendor, and all 
other modes of feeling which imply vastness said force, par- 
ticularly when associated with the idea of supernatural in- 
fluence or agency. It expresses, also, the feelings of amaze- 
ment, terror, and horror, or whatever emotion arises from 
the contemplation of preternatural effects. 



166 ORTHOPHONY. 

The "monotone," therefore, as the indication of vast- 
ness and power, pervades the style of all the noblest and 
most impressive forms of human language in poetry, and, 
not unfrequently, in prose of a high-wrought style. It 
abounds, particularly, in the reading of the sacred Script- 
ures ; and it is indispensable in the devotional language of 
hymns. It is used likewise in verse, and in poetic prose, 
for melody of effect, instead of the "downward slide of 
complete sense." 

The distinction between monotone and monotony will be 
readily perceived. The one is used for impressive effect, 
the other is an inexpressive fault. 

EXAMPLES OF "MONOTONE." 

1. Devotional Awe amd Reverence. 

("Effusive Orotund Quality : " " Subdued " Force: " Median Stress : " 
"Very Low" Pitchy 

Extract from the Scriptures. 

" Holy ! holy ! holy ! Lord God of Sabaoth." 

" Bless the Lord, O my soul ; and all that is within me, 

bless his holy name ! " 

" Unto thee I lift up mine eyes, thou that dwellest in 

the heavens." 

2. Awe, Sublimity, Majesty, Power, Horror. 
(" Quality," Force, " Stress," and Pitch, as before. ) 
" And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and 
lo ! there was a great earthquake. And the sun became 
black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood ; 
and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig- 
tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a 
mighty wind. 1 And the heaven departed as a scroll when 
it is rolled together ; and every mountain and Island were 
moved out of their places. 1 And the kings of the earth, 

1 A deeper note commences at each of the places thus marked. Thi 
Irhole passage is a succession of " monotones." 



THE SLIDE. 167 

and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains 
and the mighty men, and every bond-man, and every free- 
man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the 
mountains : and said to the mountains and rocks, * ' Fall on 
us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the 
throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb : 1 for the great 
day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to 
stand ? ■ " 

3. Amazement and Terror. 

( "Aspirated Pectoral Quality : " " Suppressed Force : " " Median Stress : " 
"Very Low" Pitch.) 

u In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep 
sleep f alleth on men, 1 fear came upon me and trembling, 
which made all my bones to shake. x Then a spirit passed 
before my face ; * the hair of my flesh stood up. — It stood 
still ; but I could not discern the form thereof. An Image 
was before mine eyes ; * there was silence ; and I heard a 
voice saying, 1 ' Shall mortal man be more just than God ? 
Shall a man be more pure than his Maker ? ' " 

4. Solemn and Sublime Description. 

{" Orotund Quality : " " Moderate " Force : " Median Stress : »» " Low " 

Pitch.) 

Pbospebo. — Shakespeare. 

These our actors, 

As I foretold you, were all spirits, and 

Are melted into air, into thin air : 

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, 

The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, 

The solemn temples, the great globe Itself, 

Yea, all which it Inherit shall dissolve ; 

Arid, like this insubstantial pageant faded, 

Leave not a rack behind : We are such stuff 

As dreams are made of, and our little life 

Is rounded with a sleep. 

1 Deeper note 



168 ORTHOPHONY. 

5. Majesty and Grandeur. 

{ l • Orotund Quality : " " Moderate ' ' Force : * ' Median Stress : " " Low " 
Pitch.) 

Description of Satan. — Milton. 

His form had not yet lost 

All her original brightness, nor appeared 

Less than archangel ruined, and the excess 

Of glory obscured ; as when the sun new risen 

Looks through the horizontal misty air, 

Shorn of his beams, or from behind the moon 

In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight *heds 

On half the nations, and with fear of change " 

Perplexes monarchs. 

6. Sublimity and Splendor. 

\ " Orotund Quality:" "Moderate" Force: "Median Stress: " "Low" 
Pitch.) 

Summer. — Thomson. 

But yonder comes the powerful King of Day, 

Rejoicing in the east. The lessening cloud, 

The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow, 

Illumed with fluid gold, his near approach 

Betoken glad. Lo ! now, apparent all, 

Aslant the dew-bright earth, and colored air, 

He looks in boundless majesty abroad, 

And sheds the shining day, that burnished plays 

On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering streams, 

High gleaming from afar. 

y 

7. Vastness, Sublimity, and Solemnity. 

\ ' ' Orotund Quality : " " Impassioned ' ' Force : ' ' Median Stress : " " Low " 
Pitch.) 

The Ocean. — Byron. 

Thou glorious mirror ! where the Almighty's form 

Glasses itself in tempests ; in all time, 



THE SLIDE. 169 

Calm or convulsed, — in breeze, or gale, or storm, — 
Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime 
Dark heaving ; — boundless, endless, and sublime, 

The image of Eternity, — the throne 

Of the Invisible ; even from out thy slime 

The monsters of the deep are made ; each zone 

Obeys thee, — thou go'st forth, dread, fathomless, alone ! 

"poetic monotone." 

The " poetic monotone " is, properly, the distinctive 
" second " which gives to the language of verse or of poetic 
prose, when not marked by emphatic or impassioned force, 
its peculiar melody, as contrasted with the " partial cadence" 
of " complete sense in clauses." The two faults commonly 
exemplified in passages such as the following, are, 1st, that 
of terminating a clause, which forms complete sense, with a 
"partial cadence;" 2d, that of terminating it with the 
upward "slide" of the "third." Both these errors turn 
verse into prose, or render poetic language in prose, dry 
and inexpressive ; as both these modes of voice are the ap- 
propriate language oifaet, and not of feeling or melody. 

1. 

(" Pure Tone : " " Subdued " Force : " Median Stress : " " High » Pitch.) 
Music. — Moore. 
For mine is the lay that lightly floats, 
And mine are the murmuring dying notes, 
That fall as soft as snow on the sea, 
And melt in the heart as instantly. 

2. 

I" Pure Tone : " " Subdued " Force : " Median Stress : " " Low " Pitch.} 
Autumn Scene. — Mellen. 
The winds of autumn came over the woods, 
As the sun stole out from their solitudes ; 
The moss was white on the maple's trunk ; 



170 OBTHOPHONY. 

And dead from its arms the pale vine shrunk ; 
And ripened the mellow fruit hung ; and red 
Were the tree's withered leaves around it shed. 

3. 

J" Pure Tone : " «* Moderate " Force : " Median Stress : " " Low " Pitch. 
The Ocean Depths. — Percival. 
Deep in the wave is a coral grove, 
Where the purple mullet and gold-fish rove, 
Where the sea-flower spreads its leaves of blue, 
That never are wet with falling dew, 
But in bright and changeful beauty shine 
Far down in the green and glassy brine. 



(" Quality," Force, " Stress," and Pitch as before.) 
Nature. — Bryant. 
Still shall sweet summer, smiling, linger here, 
And wasteful winter lightly o'er thee pass ; 
Bright dews of morning jewel thee, and all 
The silent stars watch over thee at night ; 
The mountains clasp thee lovingly within 
Their giant arms, and ever round thee bOw 
The everlasting f6rests. 

" POETIC MONOTONE," IN DESCRIPTIVE PROSE. 

1. 

(" Quality," etc., as before. 
Spring. — Anonymous. 
In the calm spring evenings what delightful hours the 
cottager spends in his little garden ! He is not without a 
feeling, unuttered though it be, of the sweetness of spring, 
and the delights of the passing hour ; for, as the shades of 
night fall darkly on the scene, he leans upon his spade, and 
lingers to breathe the odorous air, to hear the faint murmur 



THE SLIDE. 171 

of his wearied bees, now settling peaceably in their hive for 
the night, and the glad notes of birds, dying melodiously 
away in the inner woods. 

2. 

(" Quality," etc., as before.) 
The Chosen Gkave. — Anonymous. 
The thought is sweet to lay our bones within the bosom 
of- our native soil. The verdure and the flowers I love will 
brighten around my grave ; the same trees whose pleasant 
murmurs cheered my living ears will hang their cool shad- 
ows over my dtist ; and the eyes that met mine in the light 
of affection will shed tears over the sod that covers me, 
keeping my memory green within their spirits. 

"Semitonic or Chromatic Melody." 

An exact idea of the " semitone " would be formed by 
thinking of it as occupying precisely half the interval of the 
usual " concrete " of the " radical " and " vanish " of the 
" second " upward or downward. The student may be able 
to give it correct exemplification by attempting to utter a 
common " concrete," with a whining or plaintive tone. He 
will find that, in this case, his voice glides upward or down- 
ward in a style barely perceptible, and falling obviously 
short of that of the " diatonic concrete." This is the 
pathetic tone when used without expression. 

The voice of the mother condoling with her grieving 
child is a vivid natural exemplification of the effect of 
" semitone ; " as is, also, the tone of sorrow or regret in the 
utterance of childhood. Even the manly expression of grief 
takes this mode of utterance, especially in the language of 
dramatic poetry, in passages in which grief is not violent, 
but subdued in its tone. The excess and caricature of this 
mode of voice occurs in the whine of the dispirited child, of 
the exhausted invalid, of the languishing hypochondriac, or 



172 ORTHOPHONY. 

of the pathetic sentimentalist. It is thrown out still more 
perceptibly on the ear in the child's whimpering approach 
to crying, when he is overcome by pain or apprehension. 
The extensive range of circumstances which require or pro- 
duce the " semitone " may be distinctly apprehended if we 
pass at once to the example afforded in the deep and pecul- 
iar tones of penitence or contrition, and of supplication, — 
feelings in the true and just utterance of which it always 
predominates, and which cannot be expressed to the ear 
without it. 

The " semitone," or " chromatic " interval, is the appro- 
priate expressive note of all pathetic and tender emotion. 
It gives utterance to affectionate sympathy, commiseration, 
compassion, pity, and tenderness. It is also the character- 
istic of grief and sorrow in their subdued forms, of regret, 
penitence, contrition, complaint, condolence, supplication, 
and entreaty. 

The importance of " chromatic melody " as an element of 
elocution will be at once perceived, when we advert to the 
fact of its great power over sympathy, and its value as an 
instrument of effect in the hands of the orator, the reciter, 
and the reader. The speaker who relies wholly on his 
power to overawe, to arouse, or to impel, will always be 
found unfit for the treatment of all subjects which appeal 
to human sympathy and tenderness. 

The practice of the following examples should be accom- 
panied by frequent and extensive exercises on the elements, 
and on words and phrases, as well as lines and sentences of 
appropriate character. Additional examples may be found 
by referring to passages quoted under other heads, in vari- 
ous parts of this manual, for the purpose of exemplifying 
pathetic and tender emotions, in the various particulars oi 
"quality," "force," "stress," "pitch," etc. 



THE SLIDE. 173 

EXAMPLES OF "SEMITONE." 
1. Affectionate Sympathy. 

f" Pure Tone: " " Impassioned " Force : "Vanishing Stress," and " Tre- 
mor: " "High" Pitch: "Semitone" throughout, — interval of the 
"Fifth.") 

Adam, to Orlando. — Shakespeare. 

What ! my young master ! — O my gentle master ! 
O my sweet master ! O you memory 
Of old Sir Rowland ! why, what make you here ? 
Why are you virtuous ? Why do people love you ? 
And wherefore are you gentle, strong, and valiant ? 
Your praise is come too swiftly home before you. 
Oh, what a world is this, when what is comely 
Envenoms him that bears it ! 

("Pure Tone:" "Moderate" Force: "Median Stress:" "Middle" Pitch: 
" Semitone " throughout, — interval of the "Third.") 

Orlando, to Adam. — Shakespeare. 

O good old man, how well in thee appears 
The constant service of the antique world, 
When service sweat for duty, not for meed } — 
But, poor old man, thou prun'st a rotten tree, 
That cannot so much as a blossom yield, 
In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry ! 

2. Commiseration. 

{ " Pure Tone : " " Impassioned " Force : " Vanishing Stress," and " Tre- 
mor:" Weeping Utterance : " Semitone Proper " throughout; and occa- 
sional "Chromatic Thirds" and "Fifths.") 

Cordelia, watching over her Father, after his exposure to 
the tempest. — Shakespeare.- 

O my dear father ! Restoration, hang 

Thy medicine on my lips ; and let this kiss 

Repair those violent harms that my two sisters 

Have in thy reverence made ! 

Had you not been their father, these white flakes 



174 ORTHOPHONY. 

Had challenged pity of them. Was this a face 

To be exposed against the warring winds ? 

To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder ? 

In the most terrible and nimble stroke 

Of quick, cross lightning ? to watch (poor perdu!) 

With this thin helm ? Mine enemy's dog, 

Though he had bit me, should have stood that night 

Against my fire ; and wast thou fain, poor father, 

To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn, 

In short and musty straw ? Alack, alack ! 

'T is wonder that thy life and wits, at Once, 

Had not concluded all ! 

3. Compassion, 

J" Pure Tone : " " Subdued " Force: " Median Stress: " " Middle " Pitch: 
"Semitone Proper," and " Chromatic Third," prevalent.) 

Brutus, on the night before the battle of Philippi, to the 
boy Lucius, his attendant. — Shakespeare. 

Bear with me, good boy, I am much forgetful. 
Canst thou hold up thy heavy eyes a while, 
And touch thy instrument a strain or two ? 
I trouble thee too much ; but thou art willing. 
I should not urge thy duty past thy might, 
I know young bloods lack for a time of rest. 
I will not hold thee long : if I do live, 
I will be good to thee. [Lucius plays and sings."] 

This is a sleepy tune : — O murderous Slumber ! 
Lay'st thou thy leaden mace upon my boy, 
That plays thee music ? — Gentle knave, good-night ! 
I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee. 
If thou dost nod, thou break'st thy instrument : 
I'll take it from thee ; and, good boy, good-night ! 



THE SLIDE. 175 



4. Pity and Tenderness. 

i" Pure Tone: " " Subdued " Force : "Median " and " Vanishing Stress : " 
"High" Pitch: " Semitone Proper," and "Chromatic Fifth," through- 
out.) 

Miranda, to Ferdinand, when he is undergoing the task of car- 
rying AND PILING LOGS, AT THE COMMAND OF HER FATHER 

Shakespeare. 

Alas ! now, pray you, 
Work not so hard : I would the lightning had 
Burned up those logs, that you are enjoined to pile ! 
Pray, set it down and rest you : when this burns, 
'T will weep for having wearied you. My father 
Is hard at study, — pray now, rest yourself : 
He 's safe for these three hours. 

If you 11 sit down, 
I '11 bear your logs the while : pray, give me that, — 
I '11 carry it to the pile ! 

5. Tenderness. 

("Pure Tone : " " Subdued " Force: "Median Stress: " "High" Pitch: 
"Semitone " through the first three lines.) 

Gray's Elegy. 

On some fond breast the parting soul relies, 
Some pious drops the closing eye requires ; 

E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, 
E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires. 

6. Condolence. 

j"PureTone:" "Subdued" Force: " Gentle "" Vanishing Stress : " 
" Middle " Pitch : " Semitone," throughout, with occasional " Chromatic 
Third" and "Fifth.") 

Cromwell, to Wolsey on his downfall. — Shakespeare. 

O my lord, 
Must I then leave you ? must I needs forego 
So good, so noble, and so true a master ? 



176 ORTHOPHONY. 

Bear witness, all that have not hearts of iron, 
With what a sorrow Cromwell leaves his lord. — 
The king shall have my service ; but my prayers 
Forever and forever shall be yours ! 



CHAPTER VIII. 

" TIME." 

The chief characteristics of utterance, which are subjects 
of attention in vocal culture, are the "quality" of the 
voice, as sound, merely, and its " expression," as produced 
by "force," "stress," " melody " or " pitch," and "time," 
. — properties equivalent to those which are comprehended 
in music under the heads of "quality," "dynamics" 
(force), "melody," and "rhythm" (the effect of the union 
of " accent," or comparative force, and " time," on the 
sequence of sounds). 

The subject of " time " is that which remains to be dis- 
cussed, as the ground of practical exercises in elocution. 

" Quantity." 

The study of time, as a measure of speech, will lead to 
the primary classification of single vowel sounds, as long or 
short, in duration, according to their character and expres- 
sion, as elements of language. The contrast, in the duration 
of the " tonic element," or vowel sound, a, in the words 
male and female, will furnish examples ; the a in the former 
being much longer, or, in other words, occupying a much 
larger space of time, in utterance, than the a in the latter. 
The technical designation of this property of vocal sounds 
is " quantity," — implying quantity of time, or duration. 
The a of male is accordingly termed a " long," the a in fe- 
male, a " short quantity." Such is the usual distinction 
recognized in prosody and applied to versification. 



QUANTITY. 177 

Syllables, when regarded in connection with the " quanti- 
ties " of their component elements, and classified for the 
purposes of elocution, have been arranged by Dr. Rush, 
under the following denominations : — 

1st. "Immutable," or such as are, from the nature of 
their constituent sounds, incapable of prolongation. These 
are immutably fixed to the shortest " quantity " exhibited in 
an elementary sound, and cannot, even when accented, and 
uttered in solemn or in poetic expression, be prolonged, in 
any degree, without positive mispronunciation or destruction 
of the peculiar accent of the language ; as the t, for exam- 
ple, in the word sick, or in the verb convict. " Immutable " 
syllables terminate with an abrupt, or " atonic " element, 
preceeded by a short " tonic," as in the above examples. 

Hotspur, exclaiming on his father's illness, and consequent 
absence from the camp at Shrewsbury. — Shakespeare. 

Sick now ! droop now ! This sickness doth infect 
The very life-blood of our enterprise. 

Catiline, indignantly defying the Roman Senate. — Croly. 
Tried and convzcted traitor ! — Who says this ? 
Who '11 prove it, at his peril, on my head ? 

2d. " Mutable " syllables are such as are constituted like 
the preceding, but are capable of a slight degree of pro- 
longation, according to the nature of the feeling they ex- 
press. The monosyllable yet, or the accented syllable of 
the word beset, uttered in the tone of any vivid emotion, 
will furnish an example. An instance occurs in the scene 
of the combat between Fitz James and Roderic Dhu, when 
the latter makes the taunting exclamation, " Not yet pre- 
pared ? " — and another in Blanche's dying warning, 

" The path 's bese£, by flood and fell ! 

3d. " Indefinite " syllables are those which contain, or 
terminate with, a " tonic " element, or with any .'-' subtonic** 
12 



178 ORTHOPHONY. 

but b, d, or g. The time occupied in the enunciation of 
such sounds is properly determined by the degree of feeling 
which they are, for the moment, used to express ; as we 
perceive in the different tones of the following examples : 
the first in Hamlet's admiring exclamation, " What a piece 
of work is a man ! " and Lady Macbeth's indignant and re- 
proachful interrogation addressed to her husband, when he 
stands horror-stricken at the vision of the ghost of Banquo, 
" Are you a man ? " 

The power and beauty of vocal " expression " are neces- 
sarily dependent, to a great extent, on the command which 
a reader or speaker possesses over the element of " quan- 
tity." Milton in his " Paradise Lost " affords innumerable 
examples of the majestic grandeur of long " quantities " in 
epic verse ; and without the just observance of these the 
reading of the noblest passages in that poem becomes flat 
and dry. 

A long-continued practice on the elements of the language, 
on syllables, words, and phrases, will be well bestowed in 
the endeavor to acquire a perfect command of " quantity," 

EXERCISES IN " QUANTITY." 

The following exercises need close attention to the firm- 
ness, clearness, decision, and purity of the opening "radi- 
cal," and the delicacy and distinctness of the " vanish." The 
latter should be occasionally practised in that long-pro- 
tracted form, which, as Dr. Rush has expressively said, 
" knits sound to silence." The elements may be practised 
in " effusive," " explusive," and " explosive " utterance, on 
all the chief intervals of " slide " and " wave," commencing 
with the " second," and extending to the octave, both up- 
ward and downward, — and on the various degrees of 
" force " and modes of " stress," together with the distinc- 
tions of " pitch," and the " expression " of the chief charac- 
teristic emotions ; as awe, reverence, fear, horror, despair^ 
anger, grief, joy, love, etc. 



QUANTITY. 



179 



1. Examples of Long "Quantities" and (i Indefinite 
Syllables. 



b-11 a-rm 


ai-r 


e-ve 


OO-ZQ 


O'Y 


fl-we a-h. ! 


h-ai-r 


ee-l 


f-oo-1 


m-o-rn 


b-a-11 t-a-rn 


d-a-re 


ea-r 


p-oo-r 


f-o-rm 


aw-iul b-a-lmy 


c-a-reless c-vil 


m-oo-nless o-rder 


always h-a-rmless w-a-ry 


easy 


s-oo-ner 


o-rphan 


au-gur t-a-rnish 


v-a-rely 


f-ee-ble 


c-oo-ling 


o-rgan 


app-a-11 af-a-r 


bew-a-re rev-ea-1 


rem-o-ve 


ad-or-n 


bef-a-11 dis-a-rm 


ensn-a-re conc-ea-l 


unm-00-r 


acc-o-rd 


rec-a-11 bec-a-lm 


decl-a-re app-ea-1 


repr-o-ve 


forl-o-rn 


a-le i-ce 


o-ld 


ou-r 


oi-l 


use 


ai-d isle 


ow-u 


ow~\ 


yoi-n 


you 


ai-m. d-ie 


o-de 


v~ow 


b-oy 


d-ew 


b-a-leful z'-vy 


o-ver 


h-ow-liug 


v-oz-celess d-u-ly 


h-a/-ling d^-ing 


o-nly 


d-ow-nwarc 


n-oisy 


p-w-rer 


w-ai-\mg h-^-ghly 


h-o-ly 


b-ow-ndless 


p-oi-son 


ni-w-ral 


unv-^'-l repl-^ 


below 


reb-ou-nd 


enyoy 


ref-w-se 


recl-az-m dei-y 


foreg-o 


res-ou-nd 


reyoi-ce 


am-M-se 


disd-m-n den-^ 


beh-o-ld unh-ow-sed 


empl-oy 


den-w-de 


2. Short " Quantities " 


and " Immutable " Syllables. 1 


b-a-ck b-6 


-ck i 


)-i-ck d 


o-ck d-w-ck 


h-a-ck n-e-ck s-^-ck m-o-ck t 


-u-ck 


b-a-ckward b-e-ckon w-z-cked s-o-cket 1 


-w-ckless 


1-a-ckey sp 


-e-ckled f 


-^-ckle kn-o-cking b 


•u-cket 



att-a-ck bed-e-ck unp-z-cked bem-o-ck rel-w-ct 

m-a-t d-i-p w-p 

r-a-p Wp c-w-p 

t-a-p l-i-p s-w-p 

t-a-pster s-^-ppiDg w-pper 

str-a-pping tr-^-pping c-w-pful 

1 " Immutable " syllables do not admit of "effusive" utterance. They 
are best adapted to the display of " explosive " style, although they occur 
also in "expulsive" and '•declamatory" expression. 



180 





ORTHOPHONY. 




h~a-t 


b-z-t 


h-u-i 


c-a-t 


p-e-t 


c-u-t 


p-a-t 


f-t-t 


n-u-t 


b-a-tten 


b-z-tter 


m-w-tter 


t-a-tter 


f-z-ttest 


c-u-ttiug 


le " Qua 


ntities " and " 


Mutable" Si 



. 3. Variable " Quantities " and " Mutable " Syllables. 

a-pe wh-a-t #-e-t odd b-z-g o-dd c-w-b 

g-m-t n-o-t d-e-bt h-a-d d-i-g g-o-d d-u-b 

i-a-te g-o-t p-e-t m-a-d i-i-g n-o-d t-w-b 

b-a-sely d-o-tted b-e-tter s-a-dden g-z-ggle b-o-dy b-w-bble 

1-a-tely c-o-tter p-e-ttish m-a-dder d-z-gger s-o-ft st-w-b. 

EXAMPLES OF " QUANTITY," IN PHRASES AND SENTENCES. 

1. Long " Quantities " and " Indefinite " Syllables. 

The object in view in these exercises is to enable the 
students to trace distinctly the wide scope of " expression " 
afforded by " indefinite " syllables, for the full prolongation 
of all elements which embody the . sounds of passion and 
emotion. " Time," in elocution, is the opportunity of ef- 
fect, which inattention and rapidity throw away. Young 
readers in particular need much practice in this depart- 
ment, as they incline to haste and slight " expression." 
The mode of performing these exercises should be regulated 
with a view, at first, to the fullest effect of expressive sound. 
Afterwards the style may be reduced in effect, as the con- 
secutive reading of whole pieces may require. In vocal 
training, as in athletic exercise, the object of practice is, 
sometimes, to execute a given feat, with a view to its effect 
on habit, — to gain the power of putting forth, on requisite 
occasions, a maximum of effort, in an easy, graceful, and 
appropriate manner. 

Despair: " The rolling and the tolling of the bells ! 

The moaning and the groaning of the bells." 



QUANTITY. 181 

Grief: " woe is me ! 

To have seen what I have seen, see what I see ! " 
Courage : " Strike, till the last arm'd foe expires ! 
Strike, for your altars and your fires 1 " 
" On they come ! and will ye quail f 
Leaden rain and iron hail 
Let their welcome be ! " 
Tenderness : " Home, home, sweet home ! " 
Awe : " The dead reign there alone." 

Sublimity : " Deep calleth unto deep" 
Delight : " .4A me ! how sweetf is love itself pos- 



When but love's shadows are so rich in joy / " 
Fear : " Hal, arn't thou horribly afeard ? " 

Horror : " I had a dream which was not all a dream. 
The bright sun was extinguished : and the 

stars 
Did wander darkling in the eternal space 
Rayless and pathless : and the icy earth 
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless 
air." 
Earnest Entreaty : "Oh save me, Hubert, save me ! " 
Gloom : " Alone, alone, all, all alone, 

Alone on the wide, wide sea." 
Exultation : " I call to you with all my voice I " 
Grief: " Oh ! I have lost you all ! 

Parents, and home, and friends/' 
Courage : " Come one, come all ! — this rock shall fly 

From its firm base as soon as I." 
Awe : " My heart is awed within me, when I think 
Of the great miracle that still goes on 
In silence round me." 
Sublimity : " Hail ! holy Light ! offspring of Heaven first- 
born." 
Disdain : " None left but by submission ; and that word 
Disdam forbids me." 



182 ORTHOPHONY. 

Shouting : " ' To arms ! to arms ! to arms ! ' they cry." 
Regret : " Ah / why will kings forget that they are men, 

And men that they are brethren ? " 
Delight : " The balmy breath of incense-breathing morn." 

"0 my soul's joy ! " 
Fear : " While the deep thunder, peal on peal, afar." 
Triumph : " lo ! they come, they come ! " 

Misery : " Wailing and woe, and grief, and fear, and 

pain." 
Horror : " He woke — to die — midst flame and smoke 

And shout and groan and sabre stroke " — 
Calling : " Awake ! arise ! or be forever fallen ! " 
Defiance : " Thy threats, thy mercy, I defy / " 

" I give thee, in thy teeth, the lie I " 
Denial: "The truth of his whole statement I do most 

peremptorily deny." 
Challenge : " Pale, trembling coward ! there I throw 
my gage." 
" Draw, villain, draw, and defend thy life ! " 
Exultation : " Poison, and Plague, and yelling Rage are 

fled ! " 
Adoration: "Air, earth, and sea, resound -His praise 

abroad ! " 
Melancholy : " Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste " — 
Grandeur: "Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, 
roll ! 
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in 
vain ! " 
Anger: "And dars't thou then, 

To beard the lion in his den, 

The Douglas in his hall ? 
And hop 'st thou hence unscathed to go ? — 
No/ by Saint Bride of Both well, no/" 
Pathos : " For I am poor and miserably old ! " 
Command: " Chieftains forego / 

The man who strikes makes me his foe." 



QUANTITY. 183 

" Hold, hold ! for your Hves ! " 
" Hold, hold !• the general speaks to you ; — 
Hold, for shame ! " 
Earnest Entreaty : " Hear me ! oh ! hear me ! " 
Despair: " Farewell fear ! 

Farewell remorse." 
Madness : " Evil ! be thou my good ! " 
Pity : " Sickness, and want, and feeble, trembling age " — 
Distraction : " Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks ! rage ! 

blow; ! " 
Gloom : " Thou drear and howling wilderness." 
Vastness and Sublimity : " Boundless, endless, and sub- 

Kme ! " 
Self -reproach: " O fool ! fool ! fool ! " 
Commiseration : " Poor fool and knave, I have one part 
in my heart 
That 's sorry yet for thee / " 
Imprecation : " Strike her young bones, 

You taking airs, with lameness ! 

You nimble lightnings, dart your blending 

flames 
Into her scornful eyes ! " 
Accusation : " Nathan said unto David, ' Thow art the 
man ! ' " 
" All the treasons, for these eighteen years, 
Complotted and concocted in this land, 
Fetch from false Mowbray their chief 
spring and head." 
Joy : " Joy, joy I shout, shout aloud for ]oy ! " 

Fear: "With noiseless foot she treads the marble floor." 
Grief: " The Niobe of nations ! there she stands 

CMdless and crownless, in her voiceless woe ! " 
" Oh ! pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, 
That I am meek and gentle with these butch- 
ers 1" 



184 ORTHOPHONY. 

Sorrow : " Ah ! lady, now full well I know 

What 't is to be an orphan boy / " 
Delight: " Of pwre now pwrer air 
Meets his approach," 
" Of bloom ethereal the light-footed Dews." 

2. Short " Quantities " and " Immutable " Syllables. 

The object in view, in the following examples, is to ex- 
hibit the " explosive " mode of utterance, and to impart the 
power of concentrating and condensing expression into the 
shortest sounds. Instantaneous execution is, in these exam- 
ples, the point to be aimed at, — the voice to be charged 
with the utmost impetuous force of utterance, on every ex- 
pressive syllable ; and any approach to prolongation to be 
carefully avoided, as tending to weaken the proper effect. 

Taunting Scorn : " Letting I dare not wait upon I would, 

Like the poor cat i' the adage ! " 
Haste : " ' Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble 

like chaff." 
Wrath : " Back to thy punishment ! false fugitive." 
Maddened Resolve : " I '11 fight till from my bones my 

flesh be hacked !" 
Reproach : " Up ! sluggards, up ! " 

" Wicked, remorseless wretch I " 
" fickle fool ! " 
Indignation : " Thou impious mocker, hence ! " 

" Be ready, gods, with all your thunder- 
bolts ! 
D$sjh him in pieces ! " 
Terror: "Whence is that knocking*?" 
Command: " Sound, tickets! " 

Scorn : " You, wretch ! you could enjoy yourself, like a 
batcher's dog in the shambles, battening on garbage, while 
the slaughter of the brave went on around you." 
Contempt : " Thou tattered starveling ! " 

" The swaggering wpstart reels 1 w 






QUANTITY. 185 

Mirth : " Come, and trs'p it, as ye go, 
On the light fantastic toe ! " 
Boasting : "I have seen the day, with my good biting 
falchion 
I would have made them skip ! " 
Threatening : " This day 's the birth of sorrows : this 
hour's work 
Will breed proscriptions ! " 
Scorn : " Faithful to whom ? to thy rebellious crew ! 

Army of fiends ! — fit body to fit head." 
Amazement: " What ! fifty of my followers at a clap ! " 
Revenge: "Batter their walls down, raze them to the 

ground ! " 
Shouting : " Victory ! victory ! Their columns give 
waj ! press them while they waver ; and the day is ours ! " 
Anger : " Thou mattering, malapert knave ! " 
Derision : " Ay ! spwtter away, thou roasting apple. 

Spit forth thy spleen ! 't will ease thy heart.'* 
Horror : " I could not say, Amen, 

When they did say, God bless us." 
" Amen 
Stwck in my throat ! " 
Warning : " Bitterly shall ye rue your folly ! " 
Indignation : " But this very day, 

An honest man, my neighbor, — there he 

stands, — 
Was struck, — struck like a dog, — by one 

who wore 
The badge of Ursini," — 
Remorse : " Whip me, ye devils ! 

From the possession of a sight like this." 

3. Variable " Quantities " and " Mutable " Syllables. 

The design of the following exercises is to attract the 
student's attention to the partial change of " quantity," 
which emotion produces on " mutable " syllables, according 



186 ORTHOPHONY. 

to the characteristic tone in each instance. True, natural, 
and full "expression" requires, for example, that awe, 
solemnity, reverence, and similar feelings should be uttered 
with a comparative prolongation of " quantity," when the 
structure of syllables will admit the change, and that hurry, 
agitation, alarm, and other moods of mind tending to the 
same effects should be expressed with a rapid enunciation, 
and " quantities " rendered as brief as possible. 

Awe: (L. q.) " The dread of something after death" 
Grief: {L. q.) " Come weep with me : past hope, past 

cure, past help ! " 
Derision : (L. q.) " Shall ! his popular shall I " 
Anguish: (L. q.) " O wretched state ! O bosom black as 

death!" 
Sympathy: "Alas, poor Yorick ! " 

Horror : " O horror ! horror I horror ! tongue nor heart 
cannot conceive nor name thee ! " 

1. Impatience and Revenge. 

Macduff, after hearing of the massacre of his family by the 
order of Macbeth. — Shakespeare. 

But gentle Heaven, 

Impatience : (S. q.) 
Cut short all intermission : front to front, 
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself ; 

Revenge: (L. q.) 

Within my sword's length set him ; — if he scape, 
Heaven forgive him too ! 

2. Cheerfulness and Scorn. 

Cheerfulness: (S. q.) 
The banished duke, in the forest, to his friends. — ShaJcespeart, 
Now my co-mates, and brothers in exile, 
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet 
Than that of painted pomp ? 



QUANTITY. 187 

Scorn : (L. q.) 
Satan to Ithuriel and Zephon. — Hilton. 
Know ye not me ? Ye knew me once no mate 
For you ; there sitting where ye durst not soar. 

3. Reproachful Interrogation and Indignant Surprise. 

Reproachful Interrogation : (S. q.) 
Demosthenes to the Athenians. 
Will you forever, Athenians, do nothing but walk up and 
down the city, asking one another " What news ? " 

Indignant Surprise : (L. q.) 

" What news ! " — Can anything be more new than that 
a man of Macedonia should lord it over Athens, and give 
laws to all Greece ? 

4. Surprise and Contempt. 

Surprise : (£. q.) 

Banquo, to Macbeth, on the vanishing of the Witches. — Shake- 
speare. 

The earth hath babbles, as the water has, 
And these are of them. 

Contempt : (L. q.) 

Ode for Saint Cecilia's Day. — Dryden. 

War, he sung, was toil and trouble, — 
Honor, but an empty babble. 

5. Impatience and Awe. 
Impatience : (S. q.) 
Cassius, in the quarrel with Brutus. — Shakespeare. 
Ye gods ! ye gods \ must I endure all this ? 



188 ORTHOPHONY. 

Awe : (L. q.) 
Lear, in the thunder-storm. — Shakespeare. 
Let the great gods, 
That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads 
Find out their euemies now. 

6. Tranquillity and Despair. 

Tranquillity: {M. q.) {Moderate.) 

Anonymous Lines. 

He in his robe of virtue wraps himself, 

And smiles at Fate's caprice ! 

Despair: (£. q.) 
" Fate ! do thy worst ! " 

Pauses. 

Time, when applied as a measure of speech, prescribes 
not only the length, or " quantity," of sounds, but also that 
of the pauses, or cessations of voice, which intervene be- 
tween sentences and between their parts ; as the intermis- 
sions of the voice are, virtually, though not nominally, con- 
stituents of " expression," whether we regard thought or 
feeling. Without distinct and appropriate pauses we cannot 
understand oral communication ; and without occasional im- 
pressive cessations of voice, there can be no true sympathy 
between speaker and hearer. 

Pauses, as classified in elocution, are of two kinds : 1st, 
those which express emotion ; 2d, those which modify sense, 
or meaning. Pausing, like utterance, is regulated by the 
character of the emotion, or the thought which is the subject 
of expression. The pauses used in the. " expresion " of all 
grave, deep, and solemn emotions, which incline to prolonged 
" quantities," are comparatively long, and thus correspond in 
character to the vocal sounds between which they occur and 



PAUSES. 189 

Which they aid by their harmonious effect, as in the follow* 
ing instances : — 

" Night, 1 1| sable goddess, || from her ebon throne | 

In rayless majesty | now stretches forth | 

Her leaden sceptre | o'er a slumbering world. 

Silence || how dead I || || and darkness || how profound ! " 

Brisk, gay, and lively feelings are distinguished by brief 
" quantities," and corresponding short pauses, as in the fol- 
lowing example : — 

" Haste thee | Nymph, | and bring with thee | 

Mirth | and youthful jollity, | 

Quips and cranks | and wanton wiles, | 

Nods and becks | and wreathed smiles." 
The pauses of sense or meaning are of various lengths, 
according to the portions of speech which they are employed 
to separate ; thus, we observe the long pauses between the 
principal parts of a discourse, the somewhat shorter pauses 
at its subdivisions, the shorter still at paragraphs, and the 
shorter than even these at periods. Within a sentence it* 
self we can trace distinctly, in some instances, a principal 
pause at the middle, or the pause of compound clauses ; and 
perhaps an inferior one at or near the middle of each half, 
or the pause of simple clauses ; and, on still closer examina- 
tion, we find occasional shorter pauses in these subordinate 
portions, or the pause of phrases ; and slight pauses even 
between words. The following sentence will exemplify 
these gradations of pausing. 

" As we perceive the shadow | to have moved along the 
dial-plate, | but did not perceive its moving ; || and it ap- 
pears | that the grass has grown, | though nobody | ever 
saw it grow : || || so the advances we make in knowledge, | 
consist of minute successive steps ; || and we are unconscious 
of them | until we look back, | and thus become aware | of 
the distance | to which we have attained." 

1 The marks indicate the value or length of the pauses from ||||, the longest 
within a sentence, to | the shortest. 



190 ORTHOPHONY. 

Pauses have sometimes been classified as follows : 1st, 
Poetic and oratorical pauses, or those which express emo- 
tion, and which are sometimes termed " impassioned " or 
" impressive ; " 2d, " Rhetorical pauses," or those which 
divide & discourse into its heads and subdivisions, and those 
which the sense and structure of a sentence demand, when 
taken in conjunction, as in the prose example preceding. 
These pauses are addressed to the ear, and when they occur 
in a sentence may or may not be indicated to the eye by 
the ordinary punctuation ; 3d, Grammatical pauses, — the 
comma, semicolon, colon, and period, — which are founded 
on the syntactical structure and subdivision of sentences. 
These pauses are addressed to the eye, and are always indi- 
cated by the usual points ; 4th, Prosodial pauses, which are 
used only in verse. 

I. POETIC AND ORATORICAL PAUSES. 

These pauses of emotion, as they are sometimes termed, 
are produced for the most part by feelings of solemnity and 
pathos, or by the affectation of these, as in the style of in- 
tentional exaggeration and bombast for the effect of bur- 
lesque. 

Pauses of this description are sometimes superadded to the 
usual grammatical points, and sometimes are thrown in be- 
fore or after (sometimes both before and after) an impas- 
sioned expression or emphatic word in vivid passages of 
poetry or of declamatory prose, without regard to the gram- 
matical punctuation ; and their length depends entirely on 
the feeling expressed in the passage in which they occur ; 
they are long in solemn, and short in lively style. It be- 
comes a matter of great moment, in practice, to cultivate 
the habit of watching the effect of full and long pauses, in- 
troduced at appropriate places. Without these the most sol- 
emn passages of Scripture, and the poetry of Milton and of 
Y/oung, produce no effect, comparatively, on the mind ; while 
reading, aided by their " expressive silence," seems to bfl 



PAUSES. 191 

inspired with an unlimited power over the sympathies of the 
soul. 

EXAMPLES OF POETIC AND ORATORICAL PAUSES. 

(''Impressive" Style.) 

1. Sorrow. 

The Song of the Shirt. — Hood. 

Work! || Work! || Work ! || 

My labor never flags ; | 
And what are its wages? || A bed of straw, || 

A crust of bread || — and rags. || 
That shattered roof || — and this naked floor || — 

A table || — a broken chair || — 
And a wall so blank, | my shadow I thank 

For sometimes falling there ! 

2. Sorrow. 
The Wreck. — Irving. 

The wreck had evidently drifted about for many months ; 
clusters of shell-fish had fastened about it, and long sea- 
weed flaunted at its sides. | But where, | thought I, | is 
the crew? || Their struggle has long been over: — || 
they have gone down amidst the roar of the tempest ; — 
|| their bones lie whitening in the caverns of the deep. 
|| Silence — || oblivion — || like the waves | have closed 
•ver them : | and no one can tell the story | of their end. 

3. Deep Solemnity. 
The Deserted House. — Tennyson. 
(The lifeless body likened to a deserted house.) 
Life and Thought have gone away | 
Side by side, | 

Leaving door 1 and windows 2 wide : || — 
Careless tenants they ! 

» Tke mouth. 2 The eya. 



192 OETHOPHONT. 

All within is dark as night : || 
In the windows is no light ; || 
And no murmur at the door, 
So frequent on its hinge before. || 

Close the door, || the shutters close; || 
Or through the windows we shall see 
The nakedness, | and vacancy | 

Of the dark | deserted | house. || 

Come away : |] no more of mirth 
Is here, | or merry-making sound. | 

The house was builded of the earth, | 
And shall fall again to ground. || 

Come away : || for Life and Thought 
Here no longer dwell ; || 
But in a city glorious, | — 
A great and distant city, | — have bought 
A mansion incorruptible. | — 

Would they could have stayed with us ! 

4. Solemnity. 

Time's Revenges. — Browning. 

There may be Heaven ; | there must be Hell ; | 
Meantime there is our Earth here — || || well ! 

5. Tenderness and Pride. 
Incident op the French Camp. — Browning. 
The chiefs eye flashed ; but presently 

Softened itself, as sheathes 
A film the mother eagle's eye 

When her bruised eaglet breathes : 
44 You 're wounded ! " || " Nay," | his soldier's pride 
Touched to the quick, he said : 



PAUSES. 193 

" I'm killed, Sire ! " || And, his chief beside, | 
Smiling | the boy | fell | dead. 

6. Melancholy. 
Macbeth's Soliloquy. — Shakespeare. 
To-morrow, || and to-morrow, || and to-morrow, [| 
Creeps in this petty pace | from day to day, | 
To the last syllable of recorded time ; || 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools | 
The way to dusty death. || Out, out, brief candle! || 
Life 's but a walking shadow, || — a poor player, || 
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, | 
And then | is heard | no more. 

7. Profound Solemnity and Awe. 
Hamlet's Presentiment op Death. — Shakespeare. 

Ham. Thou wouldst not think how ill | all 's here about 
my heart ; || but it is no matter. 

Hora. Nay, good my lord, — 

Ham. It is but foolery ; || but it is such a kind of gain- 
giving as would | perhaps | trouble a woman. 

Hora. If your mind dislike anything, obey it ; I will 
forestall their repair hither, and say you are not fit. 

Ham. Not a whit ; | we defy augury : | there is a special 
providence in the fall of a sparrow. || || If it be now, | 'tis 
not to come ; || || if it be not to come, | it will be now ; || 
if it be not now, | yet it will come; || || the readiness is all. 
Since no man knows aught of what he leaves, what is 't to 
leave betimes ? || || Let be. 

8. Sententious Thought. 
Fall of Rome. — Byron. 
While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand ; ) 
When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall; || 
And when Rome falls -? || || the world ! — 

13 



194 ORTHOPHONY. 

9. Horror. 

Burke's description of the desolation effected by Hyder An 
and his son. — BurJce. 

So completely did these masters in their art, Hyder Ali, 
and his more ferocious son, absolve themselves of their impi- 
ous vow, that when the British armies traversed, as they 
did, the Carnatic, for hundreds of miles, in all directions, — 
through the whole line of their march, | they did not see 
one man, | not one woman, [| not one child, || || not one four- 
footed "beast || of any description whatever. One | dead | 
uniform | silence || reigned | over the whole region. 

10. Oratorical Interrogation. 

Brutus' s harangue to the people, after the assassination of 
CLesar. — Shakespeare. 

Who's here so base that would be a bondman? — 1| If 
any, speak ; || for him have I offended. || | Who 's here so 
rude, that would not be a Roman ? — || If any, speak ; || for 
him have I offended. || || Who 's here so vile, that will not 
love his country? — 1| If any, speak; || for him have I 
offended. — || || I pause for a reply. 

ii. "rhetorical" pauses. 

These are of great practical utility in reading ; as, be- 
sides prescribing the indispensable long pauses at heads of 
discourse and paragraphs, they direct the voice to many 
cessations of utterance, which are not indicated by the usual 
punctuation of sentences. Their chief use is to supply the 
deficiency arising from the inadequacy of points, or gram- 
matical punctuation, to mark all the places at which a pause 
necessarily occurs in reading. 

The " rhetorical " pauses often coincide with the usual 
points ; but they apply, also, in many cases in which no 
point is used. The common grammatical punctuation (in- 
dicated by the comma, semicolon, colon, and period) coin 



PAUSES. 195 

tides, in most instances, with the cessations of voice which 
meaning requires. But this is not always the case ; as they 
sometimes occur where the syntax of a sentence is inter- 
rupted or terminated, for the time, but where the sense re- 
quires no pause. " Rhetorical " pauses regard the sense of 
a sentence, and are intended for the ear : grammatical 
punctuation refers to the syntactical structure of a sentence, 
and is addressed to the eye. The " rhetorical " pauses are 
of indefinite length, and always vary, as to their duration, 
with the sentiment and the utterance, as brisk and ani- 
mated, or slow and grave. Grammatical pauses have a 
fixed and uniform value, as representing the component 
parts of a sentence as such, and, in reading aloud, can 
seldom be appropriately used, as sometimes directed, by a 
process of counting, — " one, at a comma ; two, at a semi- 
colon ; " etc., since the feelings which are expressed by the 
sentence, may, in one part of it, be lively and rapid, and in 
another solemn and slow ; as in the following instance. 

" Your house | is finished, | sir, | at last, 
A narrower house, || [| a house of clay." 

EXAMPLES OF THE "RHETORICAL" PAUSE. 

1. Between Phrases. 
Phrases commencing with a Preposition, 

1. " Depart to the house which has | in this city | been 
prepared | for thy residence." 

2. " My heart was wounded | with the arrow of affliction, 
and my eyes became dim | with sorrow." 

3. " To increase the austerity of my life, I frequently 
watched all night, sitting at the entrance of the cave | with 
my face to the east, resigning myself to the secret influ- 
ences of the Prophet." 

4 " When I awaked, I laid my forehead upon the ground, 
and blessed the Prophet | for the instruction of the morn- 
ing." 



196 ORTHOPHONY. 

5. " The king, whose doubts were now removed, looked 
up | with a smile that communicated the joy of his mind." 

Phrases commencing with an Adverb. 

1. " He has passed to that world | where the weary are 
at rest." 

2. " The voice of Heaven summons you in these hours | 
when the leaves fall, and the winter is gathering." 

3. " Be entreated to make the decisive effort | ere it be 
too late." 

4. " He continued steadfast in his purpose | while others 
wavered." 

Phrases commencing with a Conjunction. 

1. "It is more blessed to give | than to receive." 

2. " Yet I know not | whether my danger is a reality | 
or a dream." 

3. " In the spirit of sympathy, we call on rocks | and 
streams | and forests |] to witness | and share our emo- 
tions." 

4. " The same sun which now marks the autumn of the 
year, will again arise in his brightness, and bring along with 
him the promise of the spring | and all the magnificence of 
summer." 

5. " The voice of despair now whispers | that all exer- 
tion is in vain." 

6. " We are often deceived | because we are willing to be 
deceived." 

2. Between Words. 

The Nominative and the Verb. 

1. " The breeze | died away, as the sun | sank behind 
the hills." 

2. " The smoke | rises not through the trees : for the 
honors of the grove | are fallen." 

3. " Weeping | may endure for a night ; but joy J cometb 
in the morning." 



MOVEMENT. 197 

Ellipsis. 

" Add to your faith virtue ; and to virtue | knowledge ; 
and to knowledge | temperance ; and to temperance | pa- 
tience." 

III. GRAMMATICAL PAUSES. 

The due observance of the pauses indicated by grammati- 
cal punctuation is one of the useful and effectual means of 
arresting the attention of young learners, and accustoming 
them to mark distinctly the component portions of a sen- 
tence. But the common fauk of school reading, and some- 
times of professional exercises, — a uniform and mechanical 
style, — is, in part, owing to exact compliance with the di- 
rection to pause, invariably, for a given time at each point. 

The general rule of elocution, then, as regards the comma, 
semicolon, and colon, if we use them as guides to the voice, 
must be, to follow them only so far as they coincide with the 
meaning, and to lengthen or shorten, or omit the pauses cor- 
responding to them, as the sentiment or emotion expressed 
in a sentence may require, in slow or in lively utterance ; 
but especially to remember that there may be a long pause 
of feeling where no grammatical point occurs. 

" Movement." 

The term " movement," for which the word " rate " is 
sometimes substituted, has the same application in elocution 
as in music ; and while " quantity " regards single sounds as 
long or short, " movement " regards successive or consecutive 
sounds as fast or slow. It unites, too, with " quantity " in 
regulating the length of pauses ; as we find that slow " move- 
ment," as well as long " quantity," requires long pauses ; 
and that brisk, or rapid " movement," and brief " quantity," 
equally require short pauses. 

" Movement," in elocution, is not measured with the com- 
parative exactness implied in the musical terms, adagio, an* 



198 ORTHOPHONY. 

dante, mezzo, vivace, allegro, presto, etc. It approaches, 
however, to a considerable degree of definiteness in its use 
of the designations, " slowest," or " very slow ; " " slow ; " 
" moderate; " " lively ; " " brisk," or « quick; " and " rapid," 
" quickest," or " very quick." 

The " slowest," or " very slow movement," is exemplified 
in the expression of the deepest emotions of the soul ; as hor- 
ror, awe, profound reverence and solemnity and adoration. 
The "slow movement" characterizes the utterance of 
gloom, melancholy, grief, pathos, sublimity, solemnity and 
reverence, in their usual form, profound repose, grandeur, 
majesty, vastness, power, and splendor. " Moderate move- 
ment " is the usual rate of utterance in unimpassioned lan- 
guage. It belongs to common narration and description, and 
to didactic thought. The rhetorical modes of style to which 
it is applicable are those which are denominated the " dry," 
the " plain," and the " neat." " Lively movement " implies 
emotion in that gentle form which does not exceed liveliness, 
or animation. The lower degrees of all vivid feeling are 
expressed by this style of " movement." A slight degree of 
joy is usually the under-current of its effect. " Quick " or 
" brisk movement " is characteristic of gay, exhilarated, and 
glad emotion : the full feeling of joy is implied in its " ex- 
pression." It gives utterance to all playful, humorous, and 
mirthful moods. It sometimes, on the other hand, gives its 
characteristic effect to fear. The "movement " designated 
as " quickest," " very quick," or " rapid," is that of haste, 
hurry, alarm, confusion, and fear, when rising to terror, and 
highly-wrought lyric passages. 

Utterance, to be natural and effective, must have the gen- 
uine expression of its appropriate " movement." Solemnity 
cannot exist, to the ear, without slowness, nor gayety without 
briskness of utterance, gravity without sedate style, nor ani- 
mation without a lively " movement." 

The three principal faults of " movement," which are ex« 
emplified in the common practice of reading, are uniform 



MOVEMENT. 199 

slowness, or, perhaps, a drawling style ; habitual rapidity, 
which prevents all deep and impressive effect, and, perhaps, 
causes indistinctness of enunciation ; a uniform " moderate " 
" movement," which never yields to any natural influence 
of emotion, — so as to become appropriately expressive, 
and pass from grave to gay, or the reverse, by a change in 
the gait of the voice, — but utters, automaton-like, all feelings 
in the same unmeaning and mechanical style ; the voice 
marching on, with one uniform measured step, over all va- 
rieties of surface, as regards the tenor of language and the 
subject. 

EXAMPLES OF "MOVEMENT." 
I. " SLOWEST MOVEMENT." 

1. Amazement, Awe, and Horror. 

(" Aspirated Pectoral Quality: " " Suppressed " Force: "Median Stress : " 
"Lowest" Pitch: Prevalent " Monotone : " Extremely Lon« Pauses. \ 

Darkness. — Byron. 

I had a dream which was not all a dream. 

The bright sun was extinguished ; and the stars 

Did wander darkling in the eternal space, 

Rayless, and pathless ; and the icy earth 

Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air ; 

Morn came, and went, — and came, and brought no day. 

The world was void. 

The populous and the powerful was a lump, — 

Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless, — 

A lump of death — a chaos of hard clay. 

The rivers, lakes, and ocean, all stood still ; 

And nothing stirred within their silent depths : 

Ships, sailorless, lay rotting on the sea ; 

And their masts fell down piecemeal : as they dropped 

They slept on the abyss without a surge ; — 

The waves were dead ; the tides were in their grave, 

The moon, their mistress, had expired before : 



200 ORTHOPHONY. 

The winds were withered in the stagnant air ; 
And the clouds perished : Darkness had no need 
Of aid from them, — She was the universe. 

2. Profound Meditation, 

Rhyme of the Duchess May. — Mrs. Browning. 

And I said in underbreath, all our life is mixed with 
death, — 
And who knoweth which is best? 

And I smiled to think God's greatness flowed around our 
incompleteness, — 
Round our restlessness, His rest. 

II. " SLOW MOVEMENT." 

1. Sublimity, Majesty, and Power. 

("Expulsive Orotund : " ' : Impassioned " Force : " Radical and Median 
Stress:" "Low "Pitch: Prevalent " Downward Slide : " Occasional 
,; Monotone:" Long Pauses.) 

From David's Psalm of Praise, on his deliverance from his 

ENEMIES. 

Then the earth shook and trembled : the foundations of 
heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth. There 
went up a smoke out of his nostrils ; and fire out of his 
mouth devoured : coals were kindled by it. He bowed the 
heavens, also, and came down ; and darkness was under his 
feet ; and he rode upon a cherub, and did fly ; and he was 
seen upon the wings of the wind ; and he made darkness 
pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of 
the skies. The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most 
High uttered his voice ; and he sent out arrows and scat- 
tered them ; lightning, and discomfited them. And the 
channels of the sea appeared ; the foundations of the world 
were discovered at the rebuking of the Lord, at the blast 
of the breath of his nostrils. 



MOVEMENT. 201 

2. Pathos and Gloom. 

Milton's allusion to his loss of sight. 

Seasons return : But not to me returns 
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, 
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, 
Or flocks or herds or human face divine ; 
But cloud, instead, and ever during dark 
Surround me, from the cheerful ways of men 
Cut off, and, for the book of knowledge fair, 
Presented with a universal blank 
Of nature's works, to me expunged and razed, 
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out ! 

3. Deep Tranquillity. 

The Sleep. — Mrs. Browning. 

And friends ! — dear friends ! — when it shall be 

That this low breath is gone from me, 

And round my bier ye come to weep — 

Let one, most loving of you all, 

Say : " Not a tear must o'er her fall, — 

He giveth his beloved sleep ! " 

III. "MODERATE MOVEMENT." 

1. Narrative Style. 

j" Pure Tone : " " Moderate " Force : " Unimpassioned Radical Stress? " 
"Middle" Pitch: Varied "Slides:" Moderate Pauses.) 

Destruction of Carthage. — Anonymous. 

The city and republic of Carthage were destroyed by the 
termination of the third Punic war, about one hundred and 
fifty years before Christ. The city was in flames during 
seventeen days ; and the news of its destruction caused the 
greatest joy at Rome. The Roman senate immediately 
appointed commissioners, not only to raze the walls of Car- 



202 ORTHOPHONY. 

thage, but even to demolish and burn the very materials of 
which they were made ; and, in a few days, that city, which 
had once been the seat of commerce, the model of magnifi- 
cence, the common storehouse of the wealth of nations, and 
one of the most powerful states in the world, left behind no 
trace of its splendor, of its power, or even of its existence. 
The history of Carthage is one of the many proofs that we 
have of the transient nature of worldly glory ; for, of all her 
grandeur, not a wreck remains. Her own walls, like the 
calm ocean, that conceals forever the riches hid in its un- 
searchable abyss, now obscure all her magnificence. 

IV. "ANIMATED, OR LIVELY MOVEMENT." 

1. Narrative Style. 

("Pure Tone: " " Moderate " Force: " Unimpassioned Radical Stress: " 
" Middle Pitch : " Varied " Slides : " Short Pauses. ) 

Successive Decline of Popular Fallacies. — Goldsmith. 

I have lived to see generals who once had crowds halloo- 
ing after them wherever they went, who were bepraised by 
newspapers and magazines, — those echoes of the voice of 
the vulgar ; and yet they have long sunk into merited ob- 
scurity, with scarce even an epitaph left to flatter. A few 
years ago, the herring-fishery employed all Grub Street : it 
was the topic in every coffee-house, and the burden of every 
ballad. We were to drag up oceans of gold from the bot- 
tom of the sea : we were to supply all Europe with her- 
rings, upon our own terms. At present we hear no more 
of all this. We have fished up very little gold that I can 
learn, nor do we furnish the world with herrings, as was 
expected. Let us wait but a few years longer, and we shall 
find all our expectations a herring-fishery. 



MOVEMENT. 203 

V. " BRISK, GAT, OR QUICK MOVEMENT." 

1. Alarm. 

Isobel's Child. — Mrs. Browning. 

The large white owl that with age is blind, 

That hath sat for years in the old tree hollow, 

Is carried away in a gust of wind ! 

His wings could bear him not so fast 

As he goeth now the lattice past, — 

He is borne by the winds ! the rains do follow ! 

His white wings to the blast out-flowing, 

He hooteth in going, — 
And, in the lightnings, coldly glitter 

His round, unblinking eyes ! 

2. Haste, Alarm. 

HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS. — Browning. 

I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he ; 

I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three ; 

" Good speed ! " cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew ; 

" Speed ! " echoed the wall to us galloping through ; 

Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, 

And into the midnight we galloped abreast. 

Not a word to each other ; we kept the great pace 
Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place ; 
I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight, 
Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right, 
Rebuckled the cheek-strap, chained slacker the bit, 
Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit. 

So we were left galloping, Joris and I, 

Past Looz and past Tongres, no cloud in the sky ; 

The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh, 

'Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff, 



204 ORTHOPHONY. 

Till over by Dalhem a dome-spire sprang white, 
And " Gallop," gasped Joris, " for Aix is in sight ! " 

3. Playful and Humorous Description, 

(Mirth and Exhilaration. — " Pure Tone : " " Moderate " Force: " Radl« 
cal Stress: " " High " Pitch: " Monotone : " Extremely Short Pauses.) 

Carnival Scenes in Venice. — Byron. 

And gayety on restless tiptoe hovers, 

Giggling with all the gallants who beset her ; 

And there are songs and quavers, roaring, humming, 

Guitars, and every other sort of strumming. 

And there are dresses, splendid, but fantastical, 
Masks of all times and nations, Turks and Jews, 

And harlequins and clowns, with feats gymnastical, 
Greeks, Romans, Yankee-doodles, and Hindoos. 

4. Anger, Fierce and Stubborn Resolve. 

("Aspirated Quality:" Intensely "Impassioned" Force: "Explosive 
Radical and Vanishing Stress:" "High" Pitch: Downward "Slide" 
of "Fifth" and "Octave." Extremely Short Pauses. ) 

COKIOLANUS, MADDENED AGAINST THE ROMAN POPULACE. — ShaJceS' 

peare. 
Let them pull all about mine ears ; present me 
Death on the wheel, or at wild horses' heels ; 
Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock, 
That the precipitation might down stretch 
Below the beam of sight ; yet will I still 
Be thus to them. 

5. Descriptive Style. 

[Haste, Fear, Alarm. — " Explosive Orotund : " " Impassioned " Force: 
"Radical Stress:" " High" Pitch: Extremely Short Pauses.) 

Repulse of the Archers : — Battle of Beal an Dhuine. — Scott 

Forth from the pass in tumult driven, 

Like chaff before the winds of heaven, 

The archery appear ; 



MOVEMENT. 205 

For life, for life their flight they ply 
While shriek and shout and battle cry, 
And plaids and bonnets waving high, 
And broadswords flashing to the sky, 
Are maddening in their rear. 

VI. " RAPID, OR QUICKEST MOVEMENT." 

1. Lyric Style. 

'Aspirated Quality:" "Impassioned" Force:" "Radical Stress: n 
"High" Pitch: Prevalent "Monotone:" Extremely Short Pauses. ) 

Mazeppa, bound on the wild horse. — Byron. 

Away ! — away ! — and on we dash ! 

Torrents less rapid and less rash. 

Away, away, my steed and I, 

Upon the pinions of the wind, 

All human dwellings left behind : 
We sped like meteors through the sky, 
When with its crackling sound the night 
Is checkered with the northern light : — 
From out the forest prance 
A trampling troop, — I see them come ! 
A thousand horse — and none to ride ! — 
With flowing tail, and flying mane, 
Wide nostrils, never stretched by pain, 
Mouths bloodless to the bit or rein, 
And feet that iron never shod, 
And flanks unscarred by spur or rod, — 
A thousand horse, — the wild, the free, — 
Like waves that follow o'er the sea, 

Come thickly thundering on : — 
They stop, — they start — they snuff the air, 
Gallop a moment here and there, 
Approach, retire, wheel round and round, 
Then plunging back with sudden bound, — 
They snort, — they foam — neigh — swerve aside, 
.And backward to the forest fly, 
By instinct, from a human eye. 



206 ORTHOPHONY. 

2. Furious Haste, 
Miss Kilmansegg. — Hood. 
" Batter her ! shatter her ! 
Throw and scatter her ! " 
Shouts each stony-hearted clatterer — 

" Dash at the heavy Dover ! 
Spill her ! kill her ! tear and tatter her ! 
Smash her ! Crash her ! " (the stones did flatter her !) 
" Kick her brains out ! let her blood spatter her ! 

Roll her over and over ! " 

" Transition " in Movement. 

1. From Eagerness to Sorrow, then to Despair, 

(From "Quick" to "Slow," then "Slowest.") 

Romeo and Balthasar. — Shakespeare. 

Eagerness, (" Quick.") 

Rom. How now, Balthasar? 

Dost thou not bring me letters from the friar ? 
How doth my lady ? Is my father well ? 
How doth my Juliet ? That I ask again ; 
For nothing can be ill, if she be well. 

Sorrow, (" Slow.") 

Bal. Then she is well, and nothing can be ill. 
Her body sleeps in Capel's monument, 
And her immortal part with angels lives ; 
I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault, 
And presently took post to tell it you ; 
Oh, pardon me for bringing these ill news, 
Since you did leave it for my office, sir. 

Despair. (" Slowest.") 
Bom. Is it even so ? Then I defy you, stars ! 



MOVEMENT. 207 

2. Alarm. 

(From "Quick" to "Slow," returning to "Quick.") 
On which, without pause, up the telegraph-line 

Swept smoothly the next news from Gaeta : — " Shot 
Tell his mother." 

Grief. (" Slow.") 

Ah, ah, " his," " their " mother, — not " mine." 
No voice says " My mother " again to me. 

Eagerness. (" Quick.") 

What! 
You think Guido forgot ? 

3. Grief, Melancholy, Fury. 
(From "Slow" to "Slowest," then to "Quick.") 
Romeo and Benvolio. Shakespeare. 
Grief. ("Slow.") 
Ben. O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio 's dead ; 
That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds, 
"Which too untimely here did scorn the earthy 

Melancholy. (" Slowest.") 

Rom. This day's black fate on more days doth depend ; 
This but begins the woe, others must end. 

Fury. (" Quick.") 

Ben. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again. 

Rom. Alive ! in triumph ! and Mercutio slain I 
Away to heaven, respective lenity, 
And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now ! — 
Now, Tybalt, take the villain back again, 
That late thou gav'st me ; for Mercutio's soul 
Is but a little way above our heads, 
Staying for thine to keep him company ; 
Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him. 



208 ORTHOPHONY. 

Accent. 
i. " syllabic " accent. 

The word " accent " has been usually considered as re- 
stricted to the designation of the comparative force of sylla- 
bles as they occur in the pronunciation of words. Dr. Rush, 
however, has, by the accustomed closeness and fidelity of his 
analysis, distinctly shown that force is but one constituent 
or form of accent ; and that besides this mere comparative 
loudness there are two other constituents of accent. 

The modes of accent are determined as follows: 1st, 
" Immutable " syllables, — those which are constituted by 
fixed " short quantities," are accented by " radical stress," 
" impassioned," " explosive," or " unimpassioned," as the 
case may be, from the character of the utterance which 
marks the passage or the word in which such a syllable oc- 
curs. Thus, the word "victory" although consisting of 
three short syllables, has a decided and distinct accent on its 
first syllable, by means of " radical stress," whether we pro- 
nounce the word with impassioned " expression," or merely 
according to the rule of orthoepical accent. 

2d. " Mutable " syllables, — those which consist of " va- 
riable quantities," or such as admit of comparative prolonga- 
tion, may be accented by merely a louder sound, or greater 
force, pervading the given syllable, as compared with the 
others of the same word. Thus the word " adjutant " hav- 
ing a sufficient prolongation on its first a, to render the 
u radical stress " unnecessary, as a distinction, may have its 
accent marked merely by comparative loudness of the " con- 
crete " ad-, although in " impassioned " utterance it may 
be marked, also in part, by " radical stress," and a degree of 
prolongation. 3d. "Indefinite" syllables, or those which 
are constituted by prolonged " quantity," may be accented 
by their comparative long duration. 

The distinctive element of such syllables being " time,'* 
Dr. Rush has designated them as possessing " temporal * 



ACCENT. 209 

accent. The o in the word " holy " is an instance. Sylla- 
bles of this description may of course be executed with the 
additional accent arising from " loud concrete ; " and, in 
" impassioned " utterance, they may be further distinguished 
by abrupt " radical stress." But the " loud concrete " and 
" temporal accent " cannot be exhibited on " immutable " 
syllables. 

The effect of all these modes of accent is to impart promi- 
nence and impressiveness of sound to one syllable in most 
words, though, in some, to two syllables. 

A syllable, in orthoepy, consists properly of an entire 
" concrete," or the constituent radical and vanishing move- 
ment, requisite to constitute a sound in speech, as distin- 
guished from one in music. Instances may be found in the 
simple element a in at ; in the compound a in ale ; in the 
consecutive "tonic" and " subtonic" a and 11 in all ; in the 
consecutive " tonic and subtonics " of the word old ; or in 
the sequence of " aspiration," u tonic," " subtonic," and 
" atonic," in the word halt. 

Correct accent is indispensable in reading and speaking, 
not merely as a convenience of intelligible expression, and 
as a result of competent education, but as an indication of 
intelligence and of taste, in regard to language, and as an 
element of all distinct and spirited expression. The ac- 
cented syllable of every expressive word becomes the seat 
of life in utterance ; and there can be no surer way to ren- 
der the exercise of reading unmeaning and uninteresting, 
than to indulge the three prevalent faults of slighting the 
accent of words, unduly prolonging and forcing it, and dis- 
tributing its effect over several syllables of a word, instead 
of confining it to one. 

The single word "promotion" may suffice as an example 
of these faults. In the characteristic local accent of New 
England, the frequent use of the " wave," or " circumflex," 
and of consequent prolongation of sound, presents the word 
to the ear in the form of two separate words, or of system- 
14 



210 ORTHOPHONY. 

atic and formal syllabication in one ; thus, "pro motion" or 
"pro-motion." The current usage of the Middle States, on 
the other hand, obscures the first o of the word, so as to .re- 
duce it nearly to a short u, and sinks the last o entirely. In 
this case the word is pronounced prumoshn. 

II. " RHYTHMICAL " ACCENT. 

The subject of accent is now to be considered in con- 
nection, not with single words, but the sequence of phrases, in 
the utterance of successive sentences, and as constituting an 
important part of the study of "time " applied to the cur- 
rent of the voice, in the continuous exercises of speech, 
reading, or recitation. 

The first or lowest degree of musical accent is called 
" rhythm ;" the term, by its derivation, implying a com- 
parison between the continuous flow of the voice in speech, 
and the motion of a stream, as contrasted with the still 
water of a lake. The voice, in the enunciation of a single 
sound or word, is comparatively stationary : in the utter- 
ance of successive sounds, it has something like progressive 
motion. This motion may be varied and irregular : or it 
may be uniform and measured ; as the stream, when flow- 
ing over an uneven and rocky bed, may exhibit all vari- 
eties of motion, but when gliding along a smooth channel, 
may keep a regular rate of time, that may be exactly de- 
fined. 

The " movement " of the voice in conversation, on light 
or ordinary subjects, is variable and irregular ; on subjects 
of greater moment it is more even and sedate ; and in the 
expression of deep and energetic sentiment it becomes still 
more regular, and perhaps, to a certain degree, measured, 
in its rate of " movement." Reading is a mode of voice 
yet more distinctly marked in " movement," by its partial 
uniformity of utterance ; and declamation advances an- 
other degree, still, in " rhythm," by its deliberate and for- 
mal succession of sound. The reading or recitation oi 



RHYTHM. 211 

poetry carries the "movement" to its highest degree of 
fixed and well marked " rhythm," as determined by the 
structure of verse, which derives its pleasing effect to the 
ear from the exact observance of a continued uniform, or 
correspondent "rhythm." The word "metre," or "meas- 
ure," has accordingly its appropriate application to this 
species of "movement." 

As " time " includes the duration of pauses as well as of 
" quantities " and of " movement," it necessarily compre* 
hends under " rhythm " the exact proportion of pauses to 
sound, in the rate of utterance, when regulated by " rhyth- 
mical" accent. A part of the effect of "rhythm " on the 
ear must arise, therefore, from the " time " of regularly 
recurring and exactly proportioned pauses. The full def- 
inition of " rhythm " would, accordingly, be the effect of 
" time," in regularly returning " quantity," accent, and 
pause, in the successive sounds of the voice. 

In the usual forms of familiar prose writing, little regard 
is paid to the placing of words, as respects the effect of ac- 
cent. Some writers, however, are distinguished by a style 
which is more or less measured and rhythmical to the ear. 
The stately and formal style of oratorical declamation 
sometimes assumes this shape, as does also the language of 
sublime, pathetic, and beautiful description. Some writers, 
by high excellence of natural or of cultivated ear, succeed 
in imparting an exquisite but unobtrusive melody to their 
sentences, which forms one of the principal attractions of 
their style. We have instances of these various effects of 
the selection and arrangement of words, in the majestic and 
measured declamation of Chatham, or in the lofty and 
magnificent strains of Scripture. The cadences of Ossian 
exemplify, sometimes, the power and beauty of metrical ar- 
rangement, and sometimes the cloying effect of its too fre- 
quent and uniform recurrence. Every cultivated ear is 
familiar with the chaste and pleasing turn of the sentences 
of Addison, the easy flow of Goldsmith's, the ambitious 



212 ORTHOPHONY. 

swell of those of Johnson, the broken and capricious 
phrases of Sterne, the noble harmony of Burke, the abrupt- 
ness of Swift, and the graceful smoothness of Irving. 

The characteristic melody of each of these authors is 
owing, as we find, on analysis, to more or less attention 
paid to the effect of " rhythmical " accent : it is, in fact, a 
species even of " metre " itself, or at least a close ap- 
proach to it. Examined in detail, it will usually be found 
to consist in a skilful avoiding of " abrupt elements," in 
securing the coincidence of emphasis with " mutable " and 
" indefinite quantities," but, more particularly, an exact 
timing of the recurrence of accents at the end of clauses, 
and in the cadence of sentences ; as these places are pecul- 
iarly adapted to sounds intended for effect on the ear, 
whether the design of the writer is to render them prom- 
inent and striking, or subdued and quiet. 

" Rhythm," then, the lowest gradation of " metrical move- 
ment," exists in prose as well as poetry ; and good reading 
preserves it distinctly to the ear. 

The notation of " rhythm " is founded on the theory of 
Steele, that utterance, in speech and in reading, may, like 
music, be divided into regular portions by accent, and in- 
dicated by " bars," as in music, when written or printed ; 
each " bar " commencing with an accented syllable, or an 
equivalent pause. 

" Rhythm," however, it' must be remembered, in the 
practice of all such exercises as the following, is like every 
other requisite of elocution, — an aid and an ornament, 
within due limits of effect, but a deformity when rendered 
prominent and obtrusive. 



RHYTHM. 213 

EXAMPLES OF "RHYTHM." 
1. Declamatory Style. 
From a Sermon of Robert Hall. 
It re- | mains with | you then | *J 1 to de- | cide | whether 
that | freedom | *l at | whose | voice | *l the | kingdoms 
of | Europe | *1 a- | woke from the | sleep of | ages, [ *1 
to | run a ca- | reer of | virtuous | 2 emu- | lation | *l in | 
everything | great and | good ; | *1 *l | *1 the | freedom | 
*1 which dis- | pelled the | mists of | 2 super- | stition, | *1 
and in- | vitedthe J nations | *l to be- | hold their ] God ; | 
*l *l | *l whose | magic | touch *l | kindled the | rays of | 
genius, | *l the en- | thusiasm of | poetry, | *! and the j 
flame of | eloquence ; | *l *l | *l the | freedom | *l which j 
poured into our | lap *l | opulence | *l and | arts, | *1 *l | *! 
and em- | bellished | life | *l within- | numerable | 2 msti- | 
tutions | *l and im- | provements, | *l *1 | *1 till it be- | came 
a | theatre of | wonders ; | *1 *l | *1 it is f or | you | *l to de- 
| cide- *1 | *1 whether | this | freedom | *l shall | yet sur- | 
vive, | *l or | perish | *! for- | ever. 

2. Poetic Expression in Prose. 

Passages of Scripture introduced in the Burial Service. 

| " I | *l am the | 2 Resur- | rection | *l and the | life, | 
*l *l | *l saith the | Lord ; | *I *l | he that be- | lieveth in j 
me | *l *l | *1 though he were | dead, | *l *l | yet shall he | 
live : | *l *1 | *1 aDd | whoso- | ever | liveth, | *1 and be- | 
lieveth | in me, | *l shall | never | die. | *l *1 | *I *1 | 

*1 I | know | *l that my Re- | deemer | liveth, | *l *l | 
and that he shall | stand | *1 at the | latter | day | *l upon 
the | earth, 1*1*11*1 and though | worms de- | stroy this | 
body, | *1*1 | yet in my | flesh | *1 shall I | see |. God." j 
*l*l | *1*1 | 

1 "Rhythmical" pause. 

2 A "secondary" instead of the usual "primary" accent. 



214 ORTHOPHONY. 

3. Sentiment, in Didactic Style. Goldsmith. 

Writers | *l of | every | age | *l have en- | deavored to 
| show | *l that | pleasure | *l is in | us, | *l and | not in 
the | objects 1*1*11 offered | *l for our a- | musement. | *! 
M | *1*l | *1 If the | soul be | happily dis- | posed, | *M | 
everything | *l be- | comes | capable | *l of af- | fording | 
enter- | tainment ; | *I *I | *I and dis- | tress | *1 will almost 
| want a | name. | *l *l | *1 *l | Every oc- | currence | *l *l 
I passes in re- | view | *l like the | figures | *1 of a pro- | 
cession ; | *I *I | some | *l may be | awkward, | • *1 *1 | oth- 
ers | *l ill | dressed ; | *l but | none but a | fool | *l is, for 
| this, | *1 en- | raged with the | master of the | ceremonies. 
[ *l *l | *1 *I | 

4. Splendor and Pathos. 
Bukke's description of Marie Antoinette. 
It is | now, *I | sixteen or | seventeen | years | *I since I 
| saw the | Queen of | France, *1 | then the | Dauphiness, 
| *l at Yer- | sailles : *! | *l *l | *l and | surely | never | 
lighted on this | orb, *1 | *1 which she | hardly | seemed to 
| touch, *l | *l a | more de- | lightful | vision. | *l *l | *l *| 
| *l I | saw her | just a- | bove the ho- | rizon, | *l *l | dec- 
orating | *l and | cheering | *l the | elevated | sphere | *l 
she | just be- | gan to | move in : | *l *l | glittering, | *l like 
the | morning | star : | *1 *l | full of | life, | *l and | splen- 
dor, | M and | joy. *l | *1 M | M M | 

Oh! | what a | revo- | lution! | *M | *| and | what a | 
heart | *l must I | have, | *l to con- | template | M with- j 
out e- | motion, | *M \ that ele- | vation | *1 and | that j 
fall. *l | *1M | *I*1 | " 

5. Oratorical Declamation. Lord Chatham. 

I | cannot, | *l my | lords, *l | *I I | will not, | join | *l in 
con- | gratu- | lation | *1 on mis- | fortune | *l and dis- j 
grace. | *I*I | *M | This, | *1 my | lords,*! | *! is a | peril 



RHYTHM. 215 

ous I M and tre- | mendous | moment ; | MM | M it is | not 
a | time for | adu- | lation: | MM | M the | smoothness of 
| flattery | MM | cannot | save us | M in this | Tugged and 
j awful | crisis. | MM | MM | M It is | now | necessary | M 
to in- | struct the | throne | M in the | language of | truth. 
| MM | MM | M We | must, M | M if | possible, | M dis- | 
pel the de- | lusion and | darkness | *£ which en- | velope 
it ; | MM | M and dis- | play, M | M in its | full | danger | 
M and | genuine | colors, | M the | ruin | M which is | 
brought to our | doors. | MM | MM | 

6. Sentiment, in Didactic Style. Addison. 

I | know but | one | way | M of | forti- | fying my | soul 
| M a- | gainst | gloomy | presages and | terrors of | mind ; 
| MM | M and | that is, | M by se- | curing to my- | self M | 
M the | friendship and pro- | tection | M of | that | Being 
| M who dis- | poses of e- | vents, | M and |. governs fu- | 
turity. | MM | MM | He M | sees,M | M at | one | view, | M 
the | whole | thread of my ex- | istence, | MM | M not | 
only | that | part of it | which I have al- | ready | passed 
| through, | M but | that | M which runs | forward | M into 
| all the | depths | M of e- | ternity. | MM | MM | M When 
I | lay me | down to | sleep, | M I recom- | mend myself | 
M to | his | care ; | MM | M when I a- ( wake, | M I | give 
myself | up to | his di- | rection. | MM | MM | M Amidst | 
all the | evils that | threaten me, | I will look | up to | him 
for j help ; | MM | M and | question not | M but he will | 
either a- | vert them, | M or | turn them | to my ad- | van- 
tage. | MM | MM | M Though I | know | neither the | time 
nor the | manner | M of the | death | I am to | die, | M I 
| am not at | all so- | licitous a- | bout it ; | MM | M be- 
| cause I am | sure | M that | he | knows them | both, | 
MM | M and that he | will not | fail to | comfort [ M and 
sup- | port me M | under them. | MM | MM | 



216 



ORTHOPHONY. 



7. Sentiment, in Didactic Style. Johnson. 

Kindness | *1 is pre- | served by a | constant re- | cipro* 
| cation of [^benefits | *l or | interchange of | pleasures ; 
| *M | *1 but | such | benefits | only | can be be- | stowed, 
1*1 as | others f.^I are | capable of re- | ceiving, | M 
and | such | pleasures im- | parted, | *1 as | others | *1 are 
| qualified to en- | joy. | *M | *M | 

*l By | thisde- | scent from the | pinnacles of | art | *1 no 
| honor J *1 will be | lost ; | *M | *| for the | conde- | scen- 
sions of | learning | *»| are | always | over- | paid | *1 by | 
gratitude. | *l*l | *i*l | *| An | elevated | genius | *l em- | 
ployed in | little | things, | *l ap- | pears, | *1 to | use the j 
simile of Lon- | ginus, | *l like the | sun | *l in his | even- 
ing | decli- | nation ; | *M | *1 he re- | mits his | splendor, 
| *1 but re- | tains his | magnitude ; | *M | *| and [ pleases 
| more, | *l though he | dazzles | less. | *M | *M | 

The difference of effect in " rhythmical accent," it will 
be perceived, on closely examining the style of the preced- 
ing passages, is greatly dependent on the number of sylla- 
bles included within each " bar," and not less on the pauses, 
which are also included in the " rhythm," and therefore in- 
closed within the bars, since the " time " of the voice neces- 
sarily includes its rests and intermissions, as well as its 
sounds. " Rhythm " depends, further, on the position of 
the accented syllable which takes on the emphasis of a 
phrase, as well as on the different species of accent, as 
" radical," " concrete," or " temporal." Compare, particu- 
larly, the contents of the "bars" in the last few lines of 
the last two examples. They will be found to embody the 
expressive genius of each author, and " clothe his thought 
in fitting sound." The meek and quiet spirit of Addison 
6reathes in the plain, conversational, and comparatively 
uniform style of " rhythm," in the close of the paragraph; 
quoted from him ; and the noble soul, but mechanical ear, oi 



METRE. 217 

Johnson are equally expressed in the sweeping " rhythm '* 
of " quantity " and pause, and measured antiphony in the 
cadence of the last sentence extracted from the " Rambler." 
The limits of an elementary work like the present will not 
admit the details of analysis by which the peculiar character 
of each of the authors quoted might be verified by his 
peculiar " rhythm." But in the statements already made 
on " quantity," " pause," " movement," " accent," and 
" rhythm," the implements of analysis have been furnished, 
and the exercise of applying them may be left to the 
teacher and the student. 

III. PROSODIAL ACCENT, OR "METRE." 

The term " metre," or " measure," is applied in prosody 
and in elocution to that exact gauge of " rhythm " which is 
furnished in the process of prosodial analysis termed " scan- 
ning," by which a " verse," or line of poetry, is resolved 
into its constituent " quantities " and " accents." 

" Metre," as a branch of prosody, comprehends, in our 
language, both " quantity " and " accent." The ancient 
languages, and those of modern Europe generally, are less 
favorable than ours to this union. The Greek and the 
Latin seem to have leaned chiefly on " quantity ; " and we 
discern a similar tendency, though in an inferior degree, in 
the European continental languages, particularly those of 
the South. A language abounding in long " quantities " of 
various sound needs less aid from " accent," whether for 
distinctive enunciation or expression of feeling, than one re- 
dundant, like the English, in the number and force of its 
consonants. The racy energy of English enunciation is 
owing to the comparative force, spirit, and brilliancy of its 
accent, which strikes so instantaneously on the ear, with a 
bold " radical movement " and absorbing power, that com- 
pel the attention to the determining syllable of every word. 
It bespeaks at once the practical and energetic character of 
the people with whom it originated. Other modern Ian- 



218 ORTHOPHONY. 

guages seem to distribute the accent among all the syllables 
of a word, and to leave the ear doubtful to which it is meant 
to apply, unless in the case of long vowels, in which they 
greatly excel, as regards the uses of music and of " expres- 
sive " speech, or impassioned modes of voice. 

In emphatic utterance, however, the firm grasp which our 
numerous hard consonants allow to the organs, in the act of 
articulation, gives a peculiar percussive force of explosion 
to the vowels that follow them in accented syllables ; and 
the comparatively short duration of our unaccented sounds, 
causes those which are accented, when they possess long 
" quantity," to display it with powerful effect in the utter- 
ance of " expressive " emotion. Our poets sometimes turn 
this capability of the language to great account ; and none 
abounds more in examples than Milton, whose ear seems to 
have detected and explored every element of expressive ef- 
fect which his native tongue could furnish. 

Syllables have been classed in prosody as long or short, 
accented or unaccented; and the prosodial characters, " 
(long) and w (short), have been used to designate them to 
the eye. The same marks have been arbitrarily used to 
denote accented and unaccented syllables. 

The " rhythm " of verse, as measured by " long " and 
" short," or by " heavy " (accented), and " light " (unac- 
cented), syllables has the following metrical designations < 

1. " Iambic Metre." 

This form of verse takes its name from the circumstance 
of its being constituted by the " foot," or sequence of sylla- 
bles, called an " iambus." The words " foot " and " feet " 
are arbitrarily used in prosody to express a group of sylla- 
bles constituting a distinct and separable portion of verse. 
The " iambus " is a " foot " consisting of two syllables : the 
first, short, or unaccented, or both ; the second, long, or ac- 
cented, or both, as in the word repeal. 

"Iambic" metre is exemplified in "epic" or "heroic* 



METRE. 219 

poetry, whether in the form of " blank verse," — so called 
from its not furnishing rhymes, and its consequent blank 
effect on the ear, as in Milton's Paradise Lost, or of rhym- 
ing " couplets," — so called from the lines rhyming in 
couples, — as in Pope's translation of Homer. Each line 
in " blank verse " and the " heroic couplet " contains five 
"iambuses," or ten syllables, alternating from short to 
long, or from unaccented to accented, as in the following 
examples : — 

"Blank" Verse. 

" Advanced | in view, | they stand, | a hor- | rid front | 
Of dread- | ful length, | and daz- | zling arms, | In guise | 
Of war- | riors old, | with or- | dered spear | and shield." | 

"Heroic Couplet." 

" Like leaves | on trees | the life | of man | is found ; | 
(* 1) Now green | in youth, | (* 2) now with- | ( 2 3) ering 

on | the ground ; | 
Anoth- | er race | the fol- | (* 4) lowing spring | supplies : 
They fall | succes- | (* 5) sive, and | succes- | slve rise." 

" Iambic " verse is exemplified, also, in octosyllabic lines, 
in rhyming " couplets," and in quatrain, or four-line " stan- 
zas ." The following are examples : — 

Octosyllabic Couplet. 

" The way | was long, | the wind | was cold ; | 
The mm- | strel was | Infirm | and old." 

Quatrain Stanza: Octosyllabic Couplets. 

" The spa- | cious fir- | mament | on high | 
With all | the blue | ethe- | real sky, | 

1 Irregular feet used as substitutes for the " iambus," according to the 
"license" of versification. These feet are called (1 and 2) the "spon- 
dee," two long syllables; (3) the "tribrach," three short syllables; (4) 
the " anapaest," tioo short syllables and one long ; (5) the " pyrrhic," ttoa 
thort syllables. 



220 ORTHOPHONY. 

And span- | gled heavens, | a shin- | ing frame, | 
Their great | Orlg- | inal | proclaim." | 

Quatrain Stanza : Octosyllabic Lines, rhyming alternately. 

" The heavens | declare | thy glo- | ry, Lord, | 
In ev- | er^- star | thy wis- | dom shines ; | 

But when | our eyes | behold | thy word, | 
We read | thy name | in fair- | er lines." j 

" Common Metre " Stanza : Alternate Lines of Eight and 
Six Syllables. 

" Thy love | the power | of thought | bestowed ; | 

To Thee | my thoughts | would soar : | 
Thy mer- | cy o'er | my life | has flowed ; | 

That mer- | cy I | adore." | 

" Short Metre " Stanza : Two Lines of Six, one of Eight, 
and one of Six Syllables. 

" To ev- | er fra- | grant meads, | 
Where rich | abun- | dance grows, | 

His gra- | cious hand | indul- | gent leads, | 
And guards | my sweet | repose." 

" Iambic " verse occurs, likewise, in the form of the 
elegiac " stanza, — so called from the circumstance of its 
having been employed for the purposes of elegy. 

Elegiac Stanza : Lines of Ten Syllables, rhyming alter' 
nately. 

" Full man- | y a gem, | of pur- | est ray | serene, | 
The dark, | unfath- | omed caves | 5f o- | cean bear. | 

Full man- | y a flower | is born | to blush | unseen, | 
And waste | its sweet- | ness on | the des- | ert air." | 

Another form of the " iambic " verse, of frequent occur- 
rence in reading, is that of the " Spenserian " stanza, — so 
called from the poet Spenser, who was the first to use it, in 
a continuous poem of considerable length. 



METRE. 221 

* Spenserian " Stanza : Eight Lines of Ten Syllables and 
one of Twelve : the Rhymes occurring as follows : on the 
1st and 3d, — on the 2d, Uh, 5th, and 7th, — and on the 
&h, 8th, and 9th. 

" Where'er | we tread, | 't is haunt- | ed ho- | ly 
ground ; | 
No earth | of thine | is lost | in vul- | gar mould ! | 
But one | vast realm | of won- | der spreads | around ; | 
And all | the Mus- | e's tales | seem tru- | ly told, | 
Till the | sense aches | with gaz- | ing, to | behold | 
The scenes | our ear- | liest dreams | have dwelt | 
upon. | 
Each hill | and dale, | each deep- | ening glen | and 
wold, | 
Defies | the power | which crushed | thy tern- | pies 
gone : [ 
Age shakes | Athe- | na's tower, | but spares | gray Mar- | 
athon." 

There are many other forms of " iambic " verse ; but 
they occur less frequently ; and most of them can be easily 
analyzed after scanning the preceding specimens. 

2. " Trochaic " Metre. 

This species of verse derives its name from its predom- 
inating foot, the " trochee," which consists, as mentioned 
before, of a long syllable followed by a short, as in the 
word fatal. 

" Trochaic " verse is exemplified in the following lines 
from Dryden's " Ode for St. Cecilia's Day." 

Softly | sweet, in | Lydian | measures, 
Soon he | soothed his | soul to | pleasures. — | 
War, he | sung, Is | toil and | trouble, 
Honor, I but an I empty | bubble. 



222 ORTHOPHONY. 

This species of verse is seldom used in long or continu- 
ous poems, but principally in occasional passages, for vari- 
ety of effect. It is found usually in octosyllabic lines of 
rhyming " couplets," as above. 

3. ^Anapaestic Metre." 

This form of verse takes its name from its prevalent foot, 
the " anapaest," consisting of two short syllables followed 
by one long, as in the word intervene. 

" Anapaestic " verse is found usually in the two following 
forms : — 

1. 

Stanza of Four or Mght Lines of Three " Anapaests" or 
Equivalent Feet. 

" How fleet 1 | Is a glance | of the mind ! 

Compared | with the speed | of its flight, | 
The temp- | est itself | lags behind, [ 

And the swift | winged ar- | rows of light." 

2. 

Stanza of Four Lines of Four " Anapaests," or Equivalent 

Feet. 

" The even- 1 | Ing was glo- | riSus ; and light | through the 

trees 
Played the sun- | shine and rain- | drops, the birds | and 

the breeze ; 
The land- | scape, outstretch- | ing In love- | liness, lay | 
On the lap | of the year, | In the beau- | ty of May." | 

IV. RHYTHMICAL AND PROSODIAL ACCENT COMBINED. 

The preceding examples of verse have all, it may now be 
perceived, been marked with the characters used in prosody 
But, for the purposes of elocution, it is important to the 

1 An " iambus " sometimes occurs as the first foot in an " anapaestic * 
/ine. 



METRE. 223 

control of the voice in the reading of verse, that the stu- 
dent should accustom himself to the practice of marking the 
accentuation of verse to the ear, — a process in which the 
actual " rhythm " of the voice is decided, as in prose, by the 
position of accent. The mere prosodial " quantities " must, 
in elocution, be regarded as but subordinate and tributary 
means of effect to " rhythmical accent," and as contributing 
to secure its perfect ascendency. 

Metre, then, in reading, is to be considered as but preci- 
sion of " rhythm," by which utterance is brought more per- 
ceptibly under the control of " time," than in prose. Verse, 
accordingly, is scored for accent, exactly as prose is. Here, 
also, the student may be reminded that, in practising on 
metre, whilst, for the sake of distinct impression, he in- 
dulges its effect to the full extent, at first, he must accus- 
tom himself to reduce it gradually within those limits which 
shall render it chaste and delicate. The peculiar effects of 
" measure," in music, do not exceed those of metre in good 
reading and recitation ; and they are indispensable in the 
reading of all forms of verse, but particularly in lyric 
strains. In these, — as even a slight attention will suffice 
to prove, — the poet often changes the mood of his metre 
along with that of his theme. The " Ode on the Passions," 
and all similar pieces, require numerous changes of 
"rhythm" and prosodial effect, as the descriptive or ex- 
pressive strain shifts from passion to passion, — and from 
measure to measure. It is by no means desirable, how- 
ever, that the metre should be marked in that overdone 
style of chanting excess which offends the ear, by obtrud- 
ing the syllabic structure of the verse, and forcing upon our 
notice the machinery of prosodial effect. 

The subjoined examples may serve to suggest, to the 
teacher and the student, the mode of marking on the black- 
board, or with a pencil, similar exercises selected from the 
pages of this volume, or any other, at choice. 

It was deemed preferable to use, for our present purpose, 



224 ORTHOPHONY. 

the same examples which have been analyzed for the study 
of the prosodial structure of verse, so as to show, as im- 
pressively as possible, the difference between the literal ac- 
cent of the mere mechanism of verse as such, and the free, 
varied, and noble " rhythm " which it acquires when, in 
reading and recitation, the object in view is to render verse 
tributary to meaning and sentiment, or to vivid emotion. 
The servile style of reading verse which follows its sound 
rather than its sense, is no worse fault than a literal practis- 
ing of prosody, a fair and honest but most gratuitous scan- 
ning of the lines, rather than the reading of them. The 
strict metrical marking, however, and due practice on it, 
may be very useful to those students whose habit, in read- 
ing, is to turn verse into prose, through want of ear for 
metre. 



NOTATION OF RHYTHMICAL AND PROSODIAL ACCENT COM- 
BINED. 

I. " IAMBIC " METRE. 

"Blank" Verse. 

*1" Ad- | vanced in | view, | *l 1 they | stand, | *l * a | hor- 
rid | fronts 2 | 

*l Of | dreadful | length, | 1 *l and | dazzling | arms, | *l * in 
I guise | 

*1 Of J warriors | old | *l 3 with | ordered | spear and | 
shield." | *M | *M | 

i " Demi-csesural " pause. 2 "Final" pause. 3 "Caesural" pause. 
The pauses marked with the figure 1, etc., are founded primarily and nec- 
essarily on the sense; but the prosodial pauses, indispensable to the 
"rhythm" of every well-constructed verse, happen, in the present in- 
stance, to coincide with the pauses of the meaning. Every line of verse 
has a "final pause," which detaches it from the following line, and a 
"caesural" pause, which divides it into two parts, equal or unequal, or 
two "demi-csesural" pauses, which divide it into three parts. The 
"demi-csesural" pauses are sometimes used in addition to the "caesural," 
to subdivide the two parts which it separates. 



METRE. • 225 

" Heroic Couplet." 

*l " Like | leaves on | trees | *l the | life of | man | *1 is | 

found : | *M 
| Now *1 | green | *1 in | youth, | *M | now *l | withering 

| *l on the | ground ; | *M | 
*l An- | other | race | *1 the | following | spring | M sup- | 

plies: | *M | 
^iThey | fall sue- j cessive, | *l and sue- | cessive | rise." | 
*M \ *M \ 

" Octosyllabic Couplet." 

*l " The | way | *1 was | long, | *M \ *l the | wind | *l 

was | cold ; *l *l | 
*l The | minstrel | H was in- | firm | *l and old." | *l *l | *l 

HI 

Quatrain Stanza : " Octosyllabic Couplets" 

M " The | spacious | firmament | *l on high, | *1 *l | 
*l With | all the | blue e- | thereal | sky, | *l *l | 
*l And | spangled | heavens, | *1 a | shining | frame, 1*1*11 
*1 Their | great O- | riginal | *1 pro- | claim." | *M | *M | 

Quatrain Stanza : Octosyllabic Lines, rhyming alternately. 
*1 " The | heavens | *1 de- | clare | *1 thy | glory, | Lord, | 

*1 In | every | star | *1 thy | wisdom | shines ; | *M | 
*1 But | *1 when our | eyes be- | hold thy | word, | *M | 
*1 We | read thy | name | *l in | fairer | lines." | *1 *1 

Hi I 

" Common Metre " Stanza. 

"Thy | love | M the | power of | thought | *l be- | 

stowed; | *M | 
*l To | Thee | *l my | thoughts | *l would | soar : *M | 
*1 Thy | mercy | *1 o'er my | life | *1 has | flowed ; | *1*1 | 
*! That | mercy | *1 I a- | dore." | *M | *1 *l | 
15 



226 ORTHOPHONY. 

" Short Metre " Stanza. 

*l " To | ever | fragrant | meads, | M*l | 

*l Where | rich a- | bundance | grows, | *M | 

M His | gracious | hand | M in- | dulgent | leads, | M*l | 
*l And | guards my | sweet re- | pose." J *M | *M | 

Elegiac Stanza. 

*l " Full [ many a | gem, | *l of | purest | ray |'*| se- | 
rene, | *M | 
M The | dark | *1 un- | fathomed | caves of | ocean | *M 
| bear : | *M | *M | 
*! Full | many a | flower | *l is | born to | blush un- | 
seen, | *M | 
M And | waste | *l its | sweetness | *l on the | desert | 
air." | *M | *M | 

" Spenserian " Stanza. 

*l « Wher- | e'er we | tread, | *l 't is | haunted, | *M | holy 
*1 | ground : | *M | *M \ 
| No | earth | *l of | thine | *M | *l is | lost | *| in | 
vulgar | mould ! | *M | 
*l But | one | vast | realm j M of | wonder | *M | spreads 
a- | round; | *M | 
*l And | all the | Muse's | tales | *l seem | truly | told, 

i»« I 

Till the | sense | aches with | gazing | *l to be- | hold | 
*l The | scenes | *1 our | earliest | dreams | *1 have | dwelt 
upon. | *M | *M | 
| Each | hill | *l and | dale, | *M | *1 each | deepening 
| glen | *l and | wold, | *M | 
*l De- | fies the | power | *l which | crushed thy | temples 

| gone: | ^1*1 | *M | 
| Age | shakes A- | thena's | tower, | *l but | spares | ^ 
gray | Marathon." | *M | *M | 



EMPHASIS AND EXPRESSION. 227 

II. "trochaic" metre. 

u Softly [ sweet, | M in | Lydian | measures, | MM | 
Soon | M he | soothed his | soul | M to | pleasures. — | 

MM | 
War | M he | sung, | M is | toil | M and | trouble, | MM | 
Honor, | M but an | empty | bubble." | MM | MM | 

III. " ANAPAESTIC " METRE. 

1. Lines of Three " Anapaests" 

M " How | fleet | M is a | glance of the | mind ! | MM | MM | 

M Com- | pared with the | speed of its | flight, | MM | 
M The | tempest | M it- | self | MM | lags be- | hind, | 
MM | 
M And the | swift-winged | arrows of | light." | MM | 
MM | 

2. Lines of Four "Anapcests." 

M " The | evening | M was | glorious ; | M and | light | M 

through the | trees | MM | 
M Played the | sunshine | M and ] raindrops, | M the birds 

| M and the | breeze ; | MM | MM | 
M The | landscape | M out- | stretching | M in | loveliness, 

| lay | MM | 
M On the | lap | M of the | year, | M in the | beauty | M of 

| May." | MM | MM | 



CHAPTER IX. 

EMPHASIS AND "EXPRESSION." 

The analysis of elocution has, in the preceding chapters, 
been extended so far as. to comprehend all the chief topics 



228 ORTHOPHONY. . 

of practical elocution. The subjects of emphasis and " ex- 
pression" have been reserved for the conclusion of this 
manual, as they properly comprise a virtual review of tho 
whole subject. 

I. IMPASSIONED EMPHASIS. 

Emphasis, in its usual acceptation, is limited to mere 
comparative force of utterance on an accented syllable. 
The term, properly defined, extends to whatever expedient 
the voice uses to render a sound specially significant or ex- 
pressive. Thus, in the scornful challenge which Boling- 
broke addresses to Mowbray. 

" Pale, trembling coward ! there I throw my gage : " — 

The emphasis lies, doubtless, on the word coward, and is 
concentrated in the syllable cow-, by peculiar force of ut- 
terance. But the mere force or loudness used is only one 
of the many elements of expression which the syllable is 
made to comprise, in the intensely excited passion implied 
in the words. 

Attentive analysis will show that, in what is termed " em- 
phasis,'' in this instance, there are included all of the fol- 
lowing elements of vocal effect: 1st, the mere force or 
energy of the utterance, which produces the loudness of 
voice that accompanies violent or vehement excitement of 
feeling ; 2d, the abrupt and explosive articulation with which 
the accented syllable is shot from the mouth, in the expres- 
sion of anger and scorn ; 3d, the comparatively low pitch on 
which the syllable cow- is uttered, as contrasted with the 
high note on the opening word "pale," and which indicates 
the deep-seated contempt and indignation of the speaker ; 
4th, the comparatively long duration of the accented syllable 
and the consequent effect of deliberate and voluntary emo- 
tion, as contrasted with the rapid rate of hasty and rash 
excitement ; 5th, the dowmvard " slide," the inseparable 
characteristic of all impetuous, violent, and angry emotion; 



EMPHASIS. 229 

6th, the "pectoral" "guttural" and strongly aspirated 
quality " of voice, with which the utterance seems to burst 
from the chest and throat, with a half-suffocated and hiss- 
ing sound, peculiarly characteristic of fierce and contemptu- 
ous emotion. 1 

II. UNIMPASSIONED EMPHASIS. 

It may be thought, however, that, although the emphasis 
of passion does include many elements, the common empha- 
sis of meaning, in unimpassioned, intellectual communica- 
tion, may be sufficiently expressed by mere comparative 
force of accent. This impression, too, will, on examination, 
be found erroneous. The simplest distinctive emphasis that 
can be given comprises several points of effect, which are 
easily detected by analysis. 2 

1 It may appear, at first view, that this analysis extends beyond empha- 
sis into "expression." But emphasis is, in fact, nothing else than "ex- 
pression " concentrated and condensed into an accented syllable. For 
confirmation of this assertion we may refer to the result, in cases of ac- 
knowledged imperfect emphasis, that a failure, as regards the full effect of 
any one of the above elements, produces the fault. Let the student him- 
self bring the matter to the test of his own observation, by uttering the 
word "coward" six times in succession, dropping, each time, one of the 
elements of "expression" enumerated in the preceding analysis; and he 
will perceive that he loses, in every instance, the emphasis of impassioned 
accent. Similar illustrations might be drawn from all emotions, in turn. 
But the verification may be left for the practice of oral illustration, by the 
student or the teacher. 

2 We may take, for an example of unimpassioned emphasis, the expres- 
sions in the moral of the fable of the Discontented Pendulum, " Let any 
man resolve always to do right now, leaving then to do as it can ; and if 
he were to live to the age of Methuselah, he would never do wrong." 

The words "«cra>" and "then," in this passage, are instances of dis- 
tinctive emphasis ; they are marked, 1st, by the usual superior force of ut- 
terance which belongs to important and significant words; 2d, by a. jerk- 
ing stress, repeated at the beginning and end of each " tonic " element of 
sound in the two words, and constituting what, in elocution, is technically 
termed " compound stress; " 3d, by the comparatively high pitch on which 
each of these two words is set, relatively to the rest of the sentence; 4th, 
by a significant turn or "double slide" of voice, termed the "wave," or, 
perhaps, — in the spirit of very keen and peculiarly marked distinction, — 
hjr a double turn, constituting a quadruple " slide " and a " double wave,** 



230 ORTHOPHONY. 

EXAMPLES OF EMPHASIS. 
I. IMPASSIONED EMPHASIS. 

Cumulative Emphasis. 

Martial Ardor and Courage. 

("Expulsive Orotund Quality: " Declamatory Force : " Expulsive Median 
and Thorough Stress:" " Middle " to "High" Pitch: Falling 
"Fifth:" "Moderate" to " Quick Movement.") 

Henry V. — Shakespeare. 

This day is called — the feast of Crispian : 

He that outlives this day and comes safe home, 

Will stand a tiptoe when this day is named, 

And rouse him at the name of Crispian. 

He that shall live this day, and see old age, 

Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends, 

in the style peculiar to the prolonged utterance of acute verbal distinc- 
tions ; 5th, by the protracted sound of the words, which is inseparable from 
the enunciation of significant expressions in general, but particularly, as 
just mentioned, from the style of verbal distinctions and subtle discrimin- 
ations ; 6th, by the " oral quality " of voice, with which the words are ut- 
tered. By "oral quality" is not meant that "pure" or "head tone " 
which always accompanies unimpassioned and merely intellectual com- 
munication, — an utterance addressed to the understanding, and not to the 
passions, and hence divested of deep "pectoral" or harsh "guttural" 
quality, — but that distinctly marked and exclusively oral tone which 
causes the voice to sound as if it emanated from, or originated in, the 
mouth alone, and designedly threw the utterance into the shape of a mere 
process of articulation, dependent, for its whole effect, on the tongue, the 
palate, the teeth, or the lips. All nice distinctions in grammar, in logic, 
and even in ethics, are given in this purely "oral " form. This mode of 
voice is, as it were, the opposite pole to that of deep passion, which is not 
merely low-pitched, but designedly resounds in the thoracic cavity, and by 
its hollow "pectoral" effect seems to emanate from the chest. It indi- 
cates, thus, to the ear the presence, as the " oral quality" does the ab- 
sence, of a deep inward movement of feeling. The effect of the " oral 
quality," as a part of the emphasis of intellectual distinctions, may be as- 
certained by the student for himself, if he will utter the words "now " and 
"then " in the preceding passage, first with "low pitch " and deep "pec- 
toral " murmur, and afterwards with "high pitch" and thin "oral" 
enunciation. A similar analysis may be made on all the constituent el 
ements of unimpassioned emphasis, as enumerated in this paragraph. 



EMPHASIS. 231 

And say — To-morrow is Saint Crispian ; 

Then will lie strip his sleeve, and show his scars, 

And say, These wounds I had on Crispin's Day. 

Old men forget ; yet all shall be forgot, 

But he '11 remember, with advantages, 

What feats he did that day. Then shall our names, 

Familiar in their mouths as household words — 

Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter, 

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster — 

Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered : 

This story shall the good man teach his son ; 

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, 

From this day to the ending of the world. 

But we in it shall be remembered : 

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers ; 

For he to-day, that sheds his blood with me, 

Shall be my brother ; be he ne'er so vile, 

This day shall gentle his condition : 

And gentlemen in England, now abed, 

Shall think themselves accursed, they were not here : 

And hold their manhoods cheap, while any speaks 

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's Day. 

Emphasis of Intercession. 
Earnestness. 

("Orotund Quality:" " Moderate " Force : "Middle" Pitch: "Rad- 
ical Stress : " " Falling Fifth : " Deliberate " Emphasis.") 

Antonio interceding with Bassanio to make no further offers 
to Shylock. — Shakespeare. 

I pray you, think you question with a Jew. 
You may as well go stand upon the beach, 
And bid the main flood bate his usual height ; 
You may as well use question with the wolf 
Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb ; 
You may as well forbid the mountain pines 



232 ORTHOPHONY. 

To wag their high tops and to make no noise, 
When they are fretted with the gusts of heaven ; 
You may as well do anything most hard, 
As seek to soften that — than which what 's harder ? — * 
His Jewish heart. Therefore, I do beseech you, 
Make no more offers, use no further means, 
But with all brief and plain conveniency 
Let me have judgment, and the Jew his will. 

Frenzied Anger. 

("Aspirated Quality:" "Impassioned" Force: "Radical Stress:" 
"High" Pitch: Rising and Falling "Fifth and Octave:" "Quick 
Movement.") 

Hamlet to Laertes at the grave of Ophelia. — Shakespeare. 

Zounds, show me what thou 'It do. 
"Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo' t fast? woo't tear thyself? 
Woo't drink up eisel, eat a crocodile ? 
I 'll do 't. Dost thou come here to whine ? 
To outface me with leaping in her grave ? 
Be buried quick with her, and so will I. 
And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw 
Millions of acres on us ; till our ground, 
Singeing his pate against the burning zone, 
Make Ossa like a wart ! Nay$ an' thou 'It mouth, 
I '11 rant as well as thou. 

Fierce Anger and Defiance. 

.("Aspirated Guttural Quality:" "Impassioned" and Increasing "Ex- 
pulsive" Force: "Compound and Thorough Stress:" "High" and 
"Progressively Rising" Pitch: Downward "Third," "Fifth," and 
" Octave" in the " Slide: " "Emphatically Slow Movement.") 

CORIOLANUS, ENRAGED BY THE ACCUSATION OF THE TRIBUNES.—' 

Shakespeare. 

Call me their traitor ! Thou injurious tribune ! 
Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths, 
In thine hands clutched as many millions, in 



EMPHASIS. 233 

Thy lying tongue BOTH numbers, I would say 
Thou LIE ST, unto thee, with a voice as free 
As I do pray the gods. 

Revenge. 

("Aspirated Pectoral Quality:" Intensely "Impassioned" "Exp,ol- 
sive " Force: "Thorough Stress:" "Low" Pitch: Downward 
"Slide" of the "Fifth" and " Third : " " Emphatically Deliberate 
and Slow Movement.") 

Othello, instigated by Iago, against Cassio. — Shakespeare* 

Oh ! that the slave had FORTY THOUSAND lives 
My great revenge had stomach for them all ! " 

Anger and Threatening. 

(" Aspirated Guttural Quality : " "Impassioned" Force: "Vanishing," 
"Radical," and "Median Stress:" "High" Pitch: Downward 
" Slide " of the "Fifth: " " Movement " first " Slow," then " Quick.") 

Coriolanus, to the Roman soldiees when repulsed. — Shakespeare. 

You souls of geese, 
That bear the shapes of men, how have you run 
From slaves that apes would beat ! Pluto and hell ! 
AH hurt behind ; backs red, and faces pale 
With flight and aguedfear ! Mend, and charge home, 
Or, by the fires of heaven, I '11 leave the foe, 
And make my wars on YOU : look to H : Come on ! 

Defiance. 

| u Orotund Quality:" "Impassioned" Force: "Thorough Stress:* 
" Middle " Pitch : Downward " Fifths : " " Deliberate Movement.") 

Edmund, in reply to Albany. — Shakespeare. 

What in the world he is, 
That names me traitor, villain-like he lies : 
Call by thy trumpet : he that dares approach, 
On him, on you, — WHO NOT ? — I will maintain 
My truth and honor firmly. 



234 ORTHOPHONY. 

II. TJNIMPASSIONED EMPHASIS. 

Emphasis of Designation. 

Description of a Bookseller's Literary Dinner. — Irving. 

The host seemed to have adopted Addison's idea as to 

the literary precedence of his guests. A popular poet had 

the post of honor ; opposite to whom was a hot-pressed trav- 

eller in quarto, with plates. A grave-looking antiquary, who 

had produced several solid works, that were much quoted 

and little read, was treated with great respect, and seated 

next to a neat, dressy gentleman in black, who had written a 

thin, genteel, hot-pressed octavo on political economy, that was 

getting into fashion. Several three-volumed-duodecimo men 

of fair currency, were placed about the centre of the table, 

while the lower end was taken up with small poets, trans- 

lators, and authors who had not as yet risen with much 

notoriety. 

True Worth. — Alice Cary. 

True worth is in being, not seeming — 

In doing each day that goes by 
Some little good — not in dreaming 

Of great things to do by and bfy ; 
For whatever men say in their blindness, 

And spite of the fancies of youth, 
There is nothing so kingly as kindness, 

And nothing so royal as truth. 

Proteus. — Shakespeare. 

His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles ; 
His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate ; 
His tears pure messengers sent from the heart ; 
His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth, 



EMPHASIS. 235 

Emphasis. 
Comparison and Contrast 
Dryden and Pope. — Johnson. 
Poetry was not the sole praise of either, for both ex- 
celled likewise in prose ; but P6pe did not borrow his 
prose from his predecessor. The style of Drpden is capri- 
cious and varied; that of Pope is cautious and uniform, 
Drtyden observes the motions of his own mind ; Pope con- 
strains his mind to his own rules of composition. Dryden 
is sometimes vehement and rapid ; Pope is always smooth, 
uniform, and gentle. Dryden' 's page is a natural field ris- 
ing into inequalities, and diversified by the varied exuber- 
ance of abundant vegetation ; Pope's is a velvet lawn, 
shaven by the scythe and levelled by the roller. 

Phrases of Successive Emphatic Words. 

The British army, traversing the Carnatic, after the 
desolation effected by Hyder AH, beheld not one living 
thing, not one man, not one woman, not one child, not one 
four-footed beast, of any description whatever. 

Shouting. 

("Orotund and Pure Tone:" "Impassioned and Sustained" Force: 
" Thorough Stress : " " High " Pitch : " Quick Movement." ) 

Battle Shout of Henry V. — Shakespeare. 

The game's afoot ; 
Follow your spirit :' and, upon this charge, 
Cry — God for Harry ! England ! and Saint 
George ! 

III. "arbitrary emphasis." 
The form of utterance to which this designation may be 
applied is that " expression " or significance, whether of 
loudness, pitch, " time," " melody," or other property of 



236 ORTHOPHONY. 

vocal effect, in consequence of which the sense, or the con* 
nection and structure of the parts of a sentence, may be 
rendered apparent by modification of voice, applied extem- 
poraneously, during the moment of reading, at the discre- 
tion and by the will of the reader, rather than in compliance 
with any general rule of feeling or of elocution. This 
" arbitrary emphasis " is greatly aided in its effect by a cor- 
responding abatement or depression of voice, in clauses 
which precede or follow the word or phrase of " arbitrary 
emphasis," or which occur between two such words or 
phrases. This "discharging" of " expression," as it may 
be termed, will, of course, take place by a reduction, abate- 
ment, or depression of one or all the elements of vocal 
effect. The " arbitrary emphasis " may, at the pleasure of 
the reader, heighten the " expression " arising from " qual- 
ity," force, pitch, " slide," " melodial phrase," " time," 
" quantity," " movement," etc. ; so may the " reduction " of 
emphasis diminish or subdue, or destroy any or all of these. 

" Arbitrary emphasis " and " reduction " may be em- 
ployed where but a single parenthetic word intervenes to 
break the current of language ; as in the sentence, " The 
sprout was carefully protected by a stratum, or layer, of 
leaves" The words " stratum " and " leaves " are in this 
instance pronounced with a slight additional force, an en- 
larged interval of " slide " and prolonged " quantity ; " 
while the words " or layer " are reduced in force, shortened 
m " quantity," and levelled into " monotone," in the man- 
ner of parenthesis. 

The following example will exhibit the same effects more 
distinctly ; as poetic language is naturally more expressive 
than prose. 

" On the other side, 
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood 
Unterrified, and like a comet Q burned,) 

l The crotchets of parenthesis are introduced here, not as belonging t« 
the text but as an ocular aid, with a view to suggest the proper style of 
reading to the ear. 



EMPHASIS. 237 

That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge, 
In the arctic sky." 

The arrangement of the words, in this sentence, throws 
the word " burned " into a parenthetic situation, in conse- 
quence of the grammatical connection between the words 
" comet " and " that." To atone to the ear for this verbal 
dislocation, the word " comet " takes on an additional force, 
at lower " slide," a longer " quantity " in its accented sylla- 
ble, and a more descriptive swell of " stress," than it would 
otherwise have. The line, " That fires" etc., is also read 
with a resuming force of expression, borrowed, as it were, 
from the style of voice in the word " comet ; " while the 
word " burned " (which, as being a descriptive verb, must 
possess a degree of accent) is rendered parenthetic in effect, 
by being thrown into " monotone," instead of a downward 
" slide," and by being somewhat reduced in force, and raised 
in pitch ; while its descriptive power is retained by pro- 
longed " quantity " and " median swell." 

The following examples will illustrate the effect of " arbi- 
trary emphasis " and " reduction," where a clause is to be 
partially parenthesized, so as to preserve the connection of 
sense, on each side of it. 

" Say first, for Heaven, (hides nothing from thy view,) 
Nor the deep tract of hell." 

" Thus while he spake, each passion (dimmed his face, 
Thrice changed with pale,) ire, envy, and despair : " 

" There was a Brutus once that would have brooked 
(The eternal Devil to keep his state in Rome) 
As easily | as a king." 

The student may analyze for himself the effect of the 
"arbitrary emphasis" and "reduced expression," as indi- 
cated by the italics and the parenthesis. 

The slight, level, and rapid " expression " which takes 



238 ORTHOPHONY. 

place on clauses such as that included within crotchets, Dr. 
Rush has termed the " flight " of the voice, and the emphatic 
connecting " expression " the " emphatic tie." 

The effect of these modifications of voice will be rendered 
still more apparent by longer examples. 

He stood, and called 
His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced 
Thick as autumnal leaves (that strow the brooks 
In Vallambrosa, where the Etrurian shades, 
High over-arched, embower ;) or scattered sedge 
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed 
Hath vexed the Red-sea coast. 

Zanga, relating the origin of his hatred of Alonzo. — Young, 
'T is twice three years since that great man, 
(Great let me call him, for he conquered me,) 
Made me the captive of his arm in fight. 

One day, (may that returning day be night, 
The stain, the curse, of each succeeding year) 
For something, or for nothing, in his pride 
He struck me. (While I tell it do I live ?) 
He smote me on the cheek. 

Corporal Trim's Eloquence. — Sterne. 

(t My young master in London is dead," said Obadiah. 

" Here is sad news, Trim," — cried Susannah, wiping 
her eyes as Trim stepped into the kitchen, — " master 
Bobby is dead." 

" I lament for him from my heart and my soul," — said 
Trim, fetching a sigh, — " Poor creature ! — poor boy ! — 
poor gentleman ! " 

" He was alive last Whitsuntide," said the coachman. 

" Whitsuntide ! alas ! " cried Trim, extending his right 
arm, and falling instantly into the same attitude in which he 
read the sermon, " What is Whitsuntide, Jonathan," (foi 



EXPRESSION. 239 

that was the coachman's name,) " or Shrovetide, or any tide 
or time past, to this ? Are we not here now ? " continued the 
corporal, (striking the end of his stick perpendicularly upon 
the floor, so as to give an idea of health and stability.) 
"and are we not" (dropping his hat upon the ground) 
" gone ! in a moment ! " — It was infinitely striking ! Su- 
sannah burst into a flood of tears. — We are not stocks and 
stones: — Jonathan, Obadiah, the cookmaid, all melted. — 
The foolish fat scullion herself, who was scouring a fish-ket- 
tle upon her knees, was roused with it. — The whole kitchen 
crowded about the corporal. 

" Are we not here now, — and gone in a moment ? " — 
There was nothing in the sentence : — it was one of your 
self-evident truths we have the advantage of hearing every 
day ; and if Trim had not trusted more to his hat than his 
head, he had made nothing at all of it. 

" Are we not here now ? " continued the corporal, " and 
are we not " (dropping his hat plump upon the ground, — 
and pausing before he pronounced the word) " gone ! in a 
moment ! " — The descent of the hat was as if a heavy lump 
of clay had been kneaded into the crown of it. — Nothing 
could have expressed the sentiment of mortality, — of which 
it was the type and forerunner, — like it : his hand seemed 
to vanish from under it ; it fell dead ; the corporal's eye 
fixed upon it, as upon a corpse ; — and Susannah burst into 
a flood of tears. 

" Expression." 

Emphasis, fully defined for the purposes of elocution, is 
prominent " expression," embodied in an accented syllable. 
It bears the same relation to " expression," in its full sense, 
that " syllabic accent " bears to " rhythmical accent." It 
may be restricted to a single word : " expression " applies, as 
in music, to the sequence of sounds, in connected and consec- 
utive utterance, designed for the communication of feeling. 

" Expression," however, while it contains the same ele- 



240 ORTHOPHONY. 

ments with emphasis, comprises a few more. It includes 
the effects arising from " quality " in all its forms, " pure," 
" aspirated," etc., and from the " effusive," " expulsive," and 
" explosive " modes of utterance ; from force in all its gra- 
dations from whispering to shouting ; " stress," in its " radi- 
cal," " median," " vanishing," " compound," and " thorough " 
forms ; " tremor ; " " melody," " pitch/' " slide " and " wave " 
in all their forms ; " time," in all its influence over " move- 
ment," " rhythm," and metre. These modifications of voice 
have all been discussed and exemplified. But to all these, 
" expression " adds the effect of " drift," as it has been 
termed by Dr. Rush, — or, in other words, the impression 
produced on the ear by the frequent or successive recurrence 
of any mode or element of "expression." 

" Drift," accordingly, is either an excellence or a fault, ac- 
cording to the circumstances in which it is adopted as a 
mode of effect, and we may observe that the " drift " of re- 
curring " melody," or what, in popular language, is termed 
a " tone" is often a means of powerful and deep impression 
on the ear and on the external sympathies of an audience, 
when there is little of unity, force, or weight in the senti- 
ment which the speaker utters. A gentle and chaste " drift " 
is 'one of the natural secrets of effect, in elocution, and 
should be carefully observed and closely analyzed by every 
student who is desirous of securing a master-key to the hu- 
man heart. 



TABLES FOR DAILY EXERCISE. 

(Occupying not less than fifteen minutes in the drill.) 
I. BREATHING EXERCISES. 

(Deep Breathing : Effusive, Expulsive, and Explosive : Sighing : Sob- 
bing: Gasping: Panting. For description see pages 1-5.) 

II. ORTHOEPY. 
ELEMENTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 

Classified according to the action of the Organs of Speech 
in Articulation. 

1. ORAL AND LARYNGEAL SOUNDS. 

{Formed by the mouth and larynx.) 

In practising the sounds, the mouth should be freely 
opened, and firmly held in the position proper for the 
formation of each sound, and every position should be 
carefully observed. 

1, A-ll ; 2, A-rm; 3, A-n ; 4, i£-ve ; 5, Oo-ze, L-oo\] 
6, E-yy; 7, ^-nd ; 8, In; 9, Ai-v ; 10, *7-p ; 11, O-y ; 12, 
0-n; 13, ^-le; 14, 7-ce ; 15, O-ld; 16, Ou-r; 17, Oi-l; 
18, Use (verb, long) ; Use (noun, short). 

2. LABIAL OR LIP SOUNDS. 

1, i?-a-£e; 2, P-i-pe ; 3, M-&vm ; 4, W-oe ; 5, V-al-ve; 

3. PALATIC OR PALATE SOUNDS. 

1, C-a-£e; 2, G-a-g ; 3, Y-e. 

4. ASPIRATE OR BREATHING SOUND. 

H-e. 

16 



242 ORTHOPHONY. 

5. NASAL, OR NOSTRIL SOUNDS. 

1, N-u-n ; 2, Si-ng. 

6. LINGUAL OR TONGUE SOUNDS. 

1, L-Ti-ll; 2, i?-ap; 3, Fa-r. 

7. DENTAL SOUNDS. 

1, D-i-d; 2, r-en-*; 3, Tk-m ; 4, 7%-ine ; 5, A-z-ure; 
6., Pu-sA ; 7, (7-ea-s-e ; 8, if-one ; 9, J-oy ; 10, Ch-ur-ch. 

1. INITIAL SYLLABLES. 

Bl, cl, fl, gl, pi, spl ; br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, spr, tr, str, shr ; 
sm, sn, sp, sk, st. 

2. FINAL SYLLABLES. 

Ld, If, Ik, Im, Ip, he, Is, (Iz), It, he; m!d, nd,nce,ns, (nz), 
nk, (ngk), nt ; rb, rd, rk, rm, rn, rse, rs, (rz), rt, rve, rVd, rk'd, 
rm'd, rrCd,rs^d, rv'd; sm, (zm), s'n, (zn), sp, st; ks, ct,Tcd, 
(kt,) fd, (ft), p'd, (pt) ; d% Vn,tfn, v'n ; ble, (bl),fle, (fl,) 
gle, (gl),ple, (pi), die, (dl), tie, (tl),rl ; 1st, nst, rst, dst, rdst, 
rmdst, rndst ; bl'd, pVd, rVd; ngs, ngst, nfd ; hies, (biz), 
cles, (clz),fles, (flz), gles, (glz) ; sms, (zmz), s'ns, (znz), sps, 
sts ; sties, (slz,) stens, (snz). 

III. EXERCISES ON THE ELEMENTS OF EXPRESSION. 
WHISPERING. 

" All 's hushed as midnight, yet ! 
No noise ! and enter." 

HALF-WHISPER. 

" Step softly, and speak low, 
For the old year lies a dying ! " 

"pure tone." 

" Pale mourned the lily where the rose had died I " 
" Oh ! that this lovely vale were mine ! " 
" Joy ! joy forever ! My task is done I " 



TABLES FOR DAILY EXERCISE. 243 

" OROTUND." 

" Farewell ! a long farewell to all my greatness." 

" Hail ! holy Light, — offspring of heaven, first-born ! " 

" Sound drums and trumpets, boldly and cheerfully ! " 

FORCE. 

(Yawning, Coughing ( moderate), Laughing with the Vowel Sounds.) 

Very Soft: " Oh ! lightly, lightly tread ! " 
Soft: " Take, holy Earth, all that my soul holds dear !" 
Moderate : " The breath of spring awakens the flowers." 
Loud : " Up ! let us to the fields away ! " 
Very Loud : " Liberty ! Freedom ! Tyranny is dead ! " 

STRESS. 

Impassioned Explosive Radical : " Up ! comrades, up ! In 
Rokeby's halls 
Ne'er be it said our courage falls ! " 
Unimpassioned Radical: " A clear, distinct articulation 

is an invaluable accomplishment." 
Median Stress: " Oh ! I have lost you all, parents, and 
home, and friends ! " 
" O Lord, my God, Thou art very great ! " 
" The shades of eve came slowly down." 
Vanishing Stress : " For Heaven's sake, Hubert, let me 
not be bound ! " 
" While a single foreign troop remained on my na- 
tive shore, I would never lay down my 
arms. Never, never, NEVER ! " 
Compound Stress : " What ! to attribute the sacred sanc- 
tions of God and nature to the massa- 
cres of the Indian scalping-knife ! " 
Thorough Stress: " Awake/ arise ! or be forever fallen I " 



244 ORTHOPHONY, 



PITCH. 



Lowest : " Silence how dead ! and darkness how pro* 

found ! " 
Low : " Dark flow thy tides o'er manhood's noble head." 
Middle : " Lovely art thou, O Peace, and lovely are thy 

children." 
" He leadeth me by the still waters." 
High : " Now even now, my joys run high ! " 
Highest: "Wheel the wild dance, till the. morning 

break!" 

MOVEMENT. 

Slowest: " Creation sleeps : — 'T is as the general pulse 
Of life stood still, and Nature made a pause, — 
An awful pause, — prophetic of her end ! " 
Slow : li Now fades the glimmering landscape on the 
sight, 
And all the air a solemn stillness holds." 
Moderate : " One great end to which all knowledge ought 
to be employed, is the welfare of humanity." 
Lively : " Crowned with her pail, the tripping milkmaid 

sings ! " 
Brisk : " Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee 

Mirth and youthful jollity ! " 
Rapid : " And rushing and flushing and brushing and 
gushing, 
And flapping and rapping and clapping and slap- 

m g> 

And curling and whirling and purling and twirl- 
ing* 

Advancing and glancing and prancing and danc- 
ing,— 

'T is this way the water comes down at Lodore.'' 



TABLES FOR DAILY EXERCISE. 245 



IV. COMBINATIONS OF EXPRESSION, IN TONES OF EMOTION. 

COURAGE. 

Orotund Quality, Loud Utterance, Thorough Stress, High 
Pitch, Brisk Movement. 

" Come one, come all, — this rock shall fly 
From its firm base as soon as I." 

FEAR. 

Half Whisper, Suppressed Force, Explosive Radical Stress, 
Highest Pitch, Rapid Movement. 

" While thronged the citizens, with terror dumb, 
Or whispering with white lips, ' The foe ! they come, they 
come ! ' " 

JOY. 

Orotund Quality, Loudest Utterance, Thorough Stress, High 
Pitch, Lively Movement. 

" Joy, joy ! shout, shout aloud for joy ! " 

GRIEF. 

Orotund Quality, Subdued Force, Vanishing Stress and 
Tremor, Middle Pitch, Slow Movement. 

" Oh ! pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth ! " 

AWE. 

Orotund, slightly aspirated, Suppressed Force, Median Stress, 
Lowest Pitch, Slowest Movement. 

" It thunders ! — sons of dust m reverence bow I " 

ANGER. 

Aspirated Orotund, Loudest Utterance, Explosive Radical 
Stress, Middle Pitch, Rapid Movement. 

" Back to thy punishment, false fugitive ! " 



246 ORTHOPHONY. 

ADMIRATION. 

Pure Tone, Earnest Utterance, Median Stress, High Pitch, 
Lively Movement 

" Oh ! speak again, bright angel ! " 

HURRY. 

Aspirated Orotund, Loudest Utterance, Explosive Radical 
Stress, Middle Pitch, Rapid Movement. 

" Send out more horses ! skirr the country round ! " 

TRANQUILLITY. 

Orotund Quality, Gentle Utterance, Median Stress, Middle 
Pitch, Slow Movement. 

" O'er all the peaceful world the smile of heaven shall lie ! " 

V. EXERCISES IN THE DIFFERENT FORMS OF VERSE. 
IAMBIC METRE. 

Blank Verse: "And earthly pride 1 | is like the passing 

flower, 
That springs | to fall, and blossoms | but to 

die." 
Heroic Verse : " Like leaves on trees | the race of man | is 

found, 
Now | green in youth, now | withering on 

the ground." 
Octosyllabic Verse : " The spacious firmament | on high, 

With all the blue ethereal sky, 

And spangled heavens, a shining frame, 

Their great Original proclaim." 

1 The careful observance of these shorter pauses is the surest means of 
avoiding the tendency to a jingling style in reading verse. 



TABLES FOR DAILY EXERCISE. 247 

Oommon Metre: "Thy love | the power of thought be- 
stowed ; 
To Thee | my thoughts would soar : 
Thy mercy | o'er my life has flowed, 
That mercy | I adore." 

TROCHAIC METRE. 

" Softly sweet, in Lydian measures, 
Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures : 
War, he sung, is toil and trouble, — 
Honor | but an empty bubble." 

ANAPAESTIC METRE. 

" How fleet | is a glance of the mind ! 

Compared with the speed of its flight, 
The tempest itself | lags behind, 

And the swift-winged arrows of light." 

" The evening was glorious, and light through the trees 
Played the sunshine | and raindrops, the birds | and the 

breeze ; 
The landscape, outstretching in loveliness, lay | 
On the lap of the year, in the beauty of May." 



THE ORGANS OF VOICE. 1 

A* es3,ct anatomical knowledge of the vocal organs is 
not essential to our purpose. All that is aimed at, in the 
following observations, is to impart such an idea of organic 
structure and action as is indispensable to an intelligent, 
voluntary use of the vocal organs. 

We commence our investigation with the primary action 
of inspiration, or inhaling breath. A person in good health 
draws in breath by an exertion, partly involuntary, partly 
voluntary, of those muscles which, by a combined act, ex- 
pand, and at the same time raise the chest, and consequently 
enlarge the cavity called the thorax, — the region between 
the neck and the stomach. The degree of freedom and 
energy, in this muscular action, decides of course the ex- 
tent to which the thoracic cavity is enlarged, and the vol- 
ume of air which is inhaled : it decides, also, as a natural 
consequence, the capacity of resonance in the chest, and the 
fulness of the supply of breath, — the material of sound. 

These preliminary facts teach us the first practical lesson 
in the cultivation of the voice, — the necessity of maintain- 
ing an erect, free, expansive, unembarrassed posture of the 
chest, as an indispensable condition of full, clear, distinct, 
effective, and appropriate utterance. 

The next practical lesson here taught is that utterance 
demands a free expulsion, not less than a deep inhalation 
of breath ; that there must be a vigorous consentaneous 
action of the will, along with the silent involuntary process 
of nature. 

1 For further study the student is referred to Dr. Ghislani Durant's ad* 
jnirable work on the Hygiene of the Voice. 



254 ORTHOPHONY. 

The full function of expiration, when carried to the ex- 
tent of vocalized exclamation, implies an energetic use of 
the lower muscles of the trunk, — those which are termed 
the abdominal, 1 — to impart, by upward and inward im- 
pulse, a powerful percussion to the diaphragm, by which 
the breath contained in the air-cells of the lungs is forced 
through the bronchial tubes and the trachea, towards the 
glottis and the larynx, where it is converted into sound, 
and thence into and through the mouth, and the cavity of 
the head, where it is modified into speech by the action of 
the nasal passage, the tongue, the palate, the teeth, and the 
lips, in the various functions of articulate utterance. 

The engraved figures will serve to impart a clearer idea 
than can be conveyed by words of the place and form of 
the vocal organs, together with their action in the produc- 
tion of sound. 

Figure 1 represents the principal abdominal muscle by 
which the first expulsory movement terminating in sound is 
produced. The action of this muscle, in energetic and ab- 
rupt forms of utterance, is nearly the same in kind, though 
not in degree, with that which takes place in the sudden 
shrinking from a blow aimed at or below the stomach. In 
vigorous utterance of a steady and sustained character, or in 
the energetic singing of long notes, a powerful and con- 
tinued upward and inward pressure of the abdominal mus- 
cles takes place, as in the attitude observed in swift riding 
on horseback. 

2. The diaphragm, which by an upward impulse, consen- 
taneous with that of the abdominal muscles, and imparted 
to the pleura or enveloping membrane of the lungs, forces 
the breath from the air cells into the bronchi, and thence 
into the trachea and the larynx. 

3. The thorax, the great cavity of the chest. By the ex- 

1 In shouting and calling, and other violent exertions of voice, the dorsch 
muscles — those of the lower part of the back — partake in the expulsory 
effort. 



THE ORGANS OF VOICE. 255 

pansion and compression of this capacious organ, the pro- 
cess of breathing is conducted ; and by its resonance the 
voice receives depth and volume. 

4. The intercostal muscles at the lower, and 

5. The thoracic and pectoral muscles, at the upper part 
of the chest, serve to dilate and compress it, in the acts of 
breathing and of utterance. 

6. The pleura, a membrane which envelops the lungs, 
and propagates to their cells the impulse by which these 
are emptied of their successive supplies of air inhaled at the 
intervals of speaking or singing. 

7. The lungs, a spongy body in the form of lobes, into 
the cells or little cavities of which the air inhaled in 
breathing is drawn, and from which it is expelled by the 
impulse communicated, as mentioned before, by the pleura, 
and derived from the diaphragm and the abdominal muscles. 

8. The bronchi, or two main branches of the trachea or 
wind-pipe. These two tubes are themselves subdivided into 
many subordinate and minute ramifications, which serve to 
distribute to the air-cells of the lungs — in which they ter- 
minate — the breath inhaled through the trachea, and to 
convey that which is expelled from the lungs by the im- 
pulsive action of the diaphragm into the trachea, the lar- 
ynx, and the mouth. One important office of the bronchial 
ramifications is to vibrate, and thereby aid in rendering vo- 
cal the column of air which is emitted from the cells of the 
lungs. . 

9. The trachea or wind-pipe, a series of connected carti- 
laginous or gristly rings, forming the great air-tube, which 
receives and conducts the breath to and from the lungs, in 
the acts of inspiration and expiration, and in the function 
of utterance. 

10. The larynx, a cartilaginous box on the top of the 
trachea, the exterior projection of which is familiarly called 
the Adam's apple, in allusion to the fabled origin of this 
part, which was anciently said to have owed its existence 



256 ORTHOPHONY. 

to Adam's fatal offence in swallowing the forbidden fruit. 
The whole larynx is the immediate seat and general instru« 
ment of vocal sound. The portions of this organ which 
are immediately concerned in the production of sound are, 

11. The cricoid cartilage, situated immediately over the 
uppermost ring of the trachea, resembling in form a seal- 
ring, from which it takes its name, but having the broad 
part at the back, and the narrow in front. The form and 
position of this portion of the larynx admit of the eleva- 
tion and depression of its parts, — one step in the process 
by which tone is rendered grave or acute. 

12. The arytenoid cartilages so called from their fancied 
resemblance in shape to a ladle, funnel, or pitcher. These 
fill up the space at the back of the thyroid and cricoid car- 
tilages, and are connected with both ; while they serve also 
as points of support and of tension for the vocal ligaments. 

13. The thyroid cartilage, which has its name from its 
partial resemblance to the form of a buckler or shield, but 
much bent. Its two main plates form the walls or sides of 
the larynx ; and their size usually determines the capacity 
of the voice, as we observe, in their comparative smallness 
in females and children, and their great expansion and pro- 
jection in men. 

The comparative solidity of texture, in all these com- 
ponent portions of the larynx, and in the gristly rings of 
which the trachea is itself composed, give them the power 
of rendering the voice compact and sonorous. 

14. The vocal ligaments extend across the upper part of 
the larynx, and form the lips of the glottis, and by their 
vibration, together with the action of the current of air 
expelled through the trachea and larynx, produce the phe- 
nomena of vocal sound or voice, and, by their tension or re- 
mission, the effect of high or low pitch. 

15. The glottis, so denominated from the partial resem- 
blance of its shape to that of the tongue, is a small chink, 
or opening, which forms the mouth of the larynx. The 



THE ORGANS OF VOICE. 257 

opening and the contraction of this portion of the vocal 
apparatus decide, in part, the gravity or the shrillness o£ 
tone. 

All the parts of the larynx are interconnected by liga- 
ments, and by muscles which move in concerted action, so 
as to expand or contract, raise or lower the whole larynx, 
and thus enlarge or diminish its capacity, and elevate or 
depress the pitch of the voice, and increase or diminish its 
force. The whole interior of the larynx is lined with a 
continuation of the mucous membrane of the mouth, which 
imparts to it a vivid sensibility and a unity of action. 
Hoarseness is the result of the embarrassment or obstruc- 
tion of this membrane, by the mucous accumulations aris- 
ing from colds or catarrh, or the injudicious habit of using 
cold water too freely during the exercise of speaking. 

16. The epiglottis, the valve or lid, which, when the lar- 
ynx is elevated, as in the act of swallowing, covers the glot- 
tis or orifice of the windpipe and prevents strangulation. 
Its usual erect position allows free ingress and egress to the 
breath. But in some instances of intensely impassioned 
utterance its pressure against the glottis becomes an ad- 
ditional preparative for the ultimate explosive eruption- of 
voice. 

17. At the root of the tongue lies a small crescent- 
shaped or horseshoe-formed bone, called, from its resem- 
blance to the Greek v, the hyo'id, or u-like bone. This mem- 
ber serves, by its firm texture, as a gateway from the 
trachea and larynx to the mouth, or from the latter to the 
former. It forms a point of tension for the muscles which 
connect the larynx with the mouth. Its hard texture en- 
ables it to perform this office effectually, and thus to aid in 
giving pitch in vocal sounds. 

18. The thyro-hyo'idean membrane connects the thyroid 
cartilage with the instrument just described, and facilitates 
the functions of both in elevating or depressing the pitch 
of the voice. 

17 



258 ORTHOPHONY.' 

19. The erico-thyroid ligament attaches, as its name im- 
plies, the cricoid or the thyroid cartilage ; and (20) the 
erico-thyrdid muscle facilitates their consentaneous move- 
ment, in the production of vocal sound, acute or grave. 

21. The pharynx or swallow, situated immediately be- 
hind and above the larynx, although not directly concerned 
in the production of sound, has, by resonant space, a great 
effect on its character. Persons in whom this organ is 
large have usually a deep-toned voice; those in whom it 
is small have comparatively a high pitch. When it is al- 
lowed to interfere with the sound of the voice, through 
negligence of habit or bad taste, it causes a false and dis- 
agreeable guttural swell in the quality of the voice. 

22. The nasal passages. Through these channels the 
breath is inhaled in the usual tranquil function of breathing. 
The innermost part of the nostrils is united into one reso- 
nant channel, and opens into the back part of the mouth, 
behind the " veil," or pendent and movable part, of the 
palate, which serves as a curtain to part the nasal arch from 
the anterior portion of the mouth. 

23. The internal tubes of the ears. Above the valve of 
the orifice of the windpipe, on each side of the root of the 
tongue, is a small opening, leading to a tube which com- 
municates with the ear, and whose orifice is always opened 
in the act of opening the mouth. These tubes have a great 
effect in rendering vocal tone clear and free ; as is per- 
ceived in the case of obstructions arising from disease, from 
accident, or from cold, which impart a dull and muffled 
sound to the voice. " The ear," says an eminent writer on 
this subject, " being formed of very hard bone, and con- 
taining the sonorous membrane of the drum, the sound of 
the voice entering it through the air-tubes must necessarily 
be increased by its passage along what may be termed the 
whispering galleries of the ear." 

The effect of these passages, as conductors of vocal sound, 
may be traced in the fact that the middle and innermost 



THE OEGANS OF VOICE. 259 

parts of the nostrils open into several hollows or cells in 
the adjacent bones of the face and forehead. By this ar- 
rangement the whole cavity of the head is rendered sub- 
servient to the resonance of the voice. That degree of 
clear, ringing, bell-like sound, which is so obvious a beauty 
of the human voice, seems to be dependent on this circum- 
stance. Hence, too, the stifled tone caused by obstruction 
arising from cold, from accident, from the deleterious effect 
of snuff-taking, or from malformation of organic parts. 

The fault of utterance which is termed nasal tone arises 
from lowering too far the veil of the palate, the mem- 
brane which separates the mouth from the nasal passages, 
and raising too high the root of the tongue, in producing a 
vocal sound. The consequence of these errors is that an 
undue proportion of breath is forced against the nasal pas- 
sages, and that these organs are at once overcharged and 
obstructed. Hence the twanging and false resonance which 
constitutes " nasal " tone. 

24. The cavity, and more particularly (25) the roof, or 
ridgy arch, of the mouth, — in the anterior part of it, — 
together with (26) the palate, and (27) the veil, or pendent 
and movable part of the palate, and (28) the uvula, or the 
terminating tag of the veil of the palate in the back part of 
the mouth, as well as (29) the upper gum and (30) the 
teeth, in the fore part of it, all serve important purposes in 
modifying the sound of the voice, and aiding the function 
of speech. 

The most satisfactory mode of forming a correct idea oi 
these organs is to inspect the interior of the mouth by the 
use of a looking-glass. In this way the position and action 
of all these parts in the function of speech may be dis- 
tinctly observed. 

The mouth, by its arched structure, exerts a great influ- 
ence in moulding the sound of the voice. It serves at once 
to give it scope and partial reverberation. It gives sweet- 
ness and smoothness to tone ; as we perceive in contrast' 



260 ORTHOPHONY. 

ing the voice duly modified by it with that which loses its 
softening effect in undue nasal ring or guttural suffoca- 
tion. 

To give the voice the full effect of round, smooth, and 
agreeable tone, the free use of the cavity of the mouth is 
indispensable : the whole mouth must be thrown open, by 
the unimpeded action and movement of the lower jaw. A 
smothered, imperfect, and lifeless utterance is the necessary 
consequence of restraint in the play of this most effective 
implement of speech. A liberal opening of the mouth is 
the only condition on which a free and effective utterance 
can be produced. 

30. The teeth. These instruments, by their hard and 
sonorous texture, serve to compact and define the volume 
of the voice, while they aid one of the important purposes 
of distinct articulation, in the function of speech. Used 
with exact adaptation to their office, they give a clear and 
distinct character to enunciation ; but, remissly exerted, 
they cause a coarse hissing, resembling the sibilation of the 
inferior animals. 

31. The tongue. The various positions and movements 
of this organ are the chief means of rendering vocal sound 
articulate, and thus converting it into speech. They ex- 
ert, at the same time, a powerful influence on the quality 
of the voice, by contracting or enlarging the cavity of the 
mouth, and giving direction to vocal sound : it is the posi- 
tion and action of the root of the tongue which render the 
voice guttural, nasal, or oral, in its effect on the ear. 

32. The lips. These important aids to articulation not 
only give distinctness to utterance, but fulness of effect to 
the sounds of the voice. Imperfectly used, they produce 
an obscure mumbling, instead of definite enunciation ; and, 
too slightly parted, they confine the voice within the mouth 
and throat, instead of giving it free egress and emissive 
force. In vigorous speech, rightly executed, the lips are 
slightly rounded, and even partially, though not boldly 



THE ORGANS OF VOICE. 261 

projected. They thus become most effective aids to the 
definite projection and conveyance of vocal sound : they 
emit the voice well moulded, and, as it were, exactly aimed 
at the ear. 

Figures 33 and 34 are intended to exhibit the effect of 
the epiglottis on the character of vocal sound. When the 
voice is thrown out with abruptness, or even with a clear, 
decided force and character of sound, there is first a mo- 
mentary occlusion of the glottis, attended, in impassioned 
utterance, by the downward pressure of the epiglottis (the 
lid of the glottis), as in the act of swallowing : [see figure 
33]. To this preparatory rallying of the muscular appa- 
ratus, and its accompanying effect of resistance, — the nat- 
ural preliminary to a powerful and sudden effort, — suc- 
ceeds an abrupt and instantaneous explosion of breath and 
sound, produced by the sudden upward impulse of the ab- 
dominal muscles and the diaphragm, acting on the pleura 
and the air-cells of the lungs, and forcing the breath up- 
ward, through the bronchi and the trachea, to the larynx. 
The breath, thus impelled, bursts forth, parting in the act, 
the glottis from the epiglottis (34), and issues from the 
mouth in the form of vocal sound. 

Figures 35 and 36 represent the position of the uvula, 
the one at rest and the other elevated, as in the production 
of some of the higher, clearer, or harsher sounds of the 
voice. 

Figure 37 represents a view of the vocal cords, reflected 
by means of the laryngoscope. Figure 38 displays different 
positions of the vocal cords : A, the position during in- 
spiration ; B, in the formation of low notes, C, in the for- 
mation of high notes. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

EXTRACTS FOR GENERAL PRACTICE. 
Exercise I. A Fiia- voyage. — Irving. 

[This extract exemplifies, in its diction, the forms of narra- 
tive, descriptive, and didactic style. The emotions arising from 
the subject and the language are those of tranquillity, wonder, 
admiration, pathos, and awe.~\ 

The first of these emotions prevails through the first two 
paragraphs, and produces, in the vocal "expression," "pure 
tone," decreasing gradually from gentle "expulsion" to 
" effusion ;" the "force" is "moderate;" the "stress," at 
first " unimpassioned radical," gradually changing to a soft 
"median;" the "pitch" is on "middle notes;" the "mel- 
ody" "diatonic," in prevalent "intervals of the second," 
varying from the " simple concrete" to the "wave;" the 
"movement" is "slow;" the pauses moderately long; the 
' ' rhythm ' ' requires an attentive but delicate marking. 

Wonder is the predominating emotion expressed in the third 
paragraph. It produces a slight deviation from perfect " purity 
of tone" towards "aspiration;" the "force" increases 
gently after the first sentence; a slight tinge of "vanishing 
stress " pervades the first sentence; an ample " median " pre- 
vails in the first two clauses of the second, and a vivid " radi- 
cal " in the third clause; and, in the closing clause, a stronger 
"vanishing stress" than before becomes distinctly audible in 
proportion to the increasing emphasis ; the ' ' pitch ' ' of this 
paragraph is moderately "low" at first, and gradually de» 
scends, throughout, as far as to the last semicolon of the para* 
graph; the "slides" are principally downward "seconds and 
thirds;" the "movement" is "slow," excepting in the lasf 
clause of the second sentence, in which it is "lively;" the 
pauses are long; and the "rhythm" still requires perceptible 
marking. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 263 

Admiration is the prompting emotion in the " expression " of 
the fourth paragraph. After the first sentence, which is neutral 
in effect, the voice passes from " pure tone " to " orotund," as 
the "quality" required in the union of beauty and grandeur; 
the " force" passes from " moderate" to " declamatory; " the 
"stress" becomes bold "median expulsion;" the "middle 
pitch" inclining to "low," for dignity of effect; and down- 
ward "thirds" in emphasis; the "movement" is "moder- 
ate;" the pauses correspondent; and the "rhythm" somewhat 
strongly marked. 

The fifth and sixth paragraphs are characterized, in " ex- 
pression," by pathos and awe. The first two sentences of the 
fifth paragraph are in the neutral or unimpassioned utterance 
of common narrative and remark ; the next three sentences in- 
troduce an increasing effect of the " pure tone " of pathos ; the 
last three of the paragraph are characterized by the expression 
of awe carried to its deepest effect ; and the preceding pure tone, 
therefore, gives way to " aspiration," progressively, to the end 
of the paragraph. The " force " in the first part of the para- 
graph is "subdued;" in the latter it is "suppressed;" the 
"stress" is "median" throughout, — gently marked in the 
pathetic part, and fully in that expressive of awe. The " pitch " 
is on " middle " notes, inclining high in the. pathetic expression, 
and "low," descending to " lowest," in the utterance of awe ; 
the "melody" contains a few slight effects of "semitone," 
on the emphatic words in the pathetic strain, and full down- 
ward "slides" of "third" and "fifth," in the language of 
awe. The " movement " is " slow " in the pathetic part, and 
' ' very slow ' ' in the utterance of awe ; the pauses correspond ; 
and the "rhythm " is to be exactly kept in the pauses of the 
latter, as they are the chief source of effect. 

The first two sentences of the sixth paragraph are character- 
ized by the expression of deep pathos, differing from that of the 
first part of the preceding paragraph by greater force, lower 
notes, fuller " stress," slower " movement," and longer pauses. 
The " expression " of the third sentence passes through the 
successive stages of apprehension, or fear, awe, and horror, 
marked by increasing " aspiration " and force, deepening notes, 
slower " movement," and longer pause, so as at last to reach 
the extreme of these elements of effect. The fourth sentence 



264 ORTHOPHONY. 

expresses still deeper pathos than before, and by the increased 
effect of the same modes of utterance. In the last sentence, in 
which awe combines with pathos, the " expression " becomes 
yet deeper and slower, but without increase of " force." 

[A similar analysis should be performed on all the following 
pieces previous to the exercise of reading them. The analogy 
of emotion, exemplified in the numerous examples contained in 
the body of the book, will be found a sufficiently definite guide 
for this purpose.] 

To an American visiting Europe, the long voyage he has 
to make is an excellent preparative. From the moment 
you lose sight of the land you have left, all is vacancy 
until you step on the opposite shore, and are launched at 
once into the bustle and novelties of another world. 

I have said that at sea all is vacancy. I should correct the 
expression. To one given up to day-dreaming and fond of 
losing himself in reveries, a sea-voyage is full of subjects 
for meditation ; but then they are the wonders of the deep, 
and of the air, and rather tend to abstract the mind from 
worldly themes. I delighted to loll over the quarter-railing, 
or climb to the main-top on a calm day, and muse for hours 
together on the tranquil bosom of a summer's sea ; or to 
gaze upon the piles of golden clouds just peering above the 
horizon, fancy them some fairy realms, and people them 
with a creation of my own ; or to watch the gentle, undulat- 
ing billows rolling their silver volumes as if to die away 
on those happy shores. 

There was a delicious sensation of mingled security and 
awe, with which I looked down from my giddy height on 
the monsters of the deep at their uncouth gambols : shoals 
of porpoises tumbling about the bow of the ship ; the 
grampus slowly heaving his huge form above the surface : 
or the ravenous shark, darting like a spectre through the 
blue waters. My imagination would conjure up all that I 
had heard or read of the watery world beneath me ; of tho 
finny herds that roam its fathomless valleys ; of shapelesa 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 265 

monsters that lurk among the very foundations of the earth ; 
and those wild phantasms that swell the tales of fishermen 
and sailors. 

Sometimes a distant sail gliding along the edge of the 
ocean^ would be another theme of idle speculation. How 
interesting this fragment of a world hastening to rejoin the 
great mass of existence ! What a glorious monument of 
human invention, that has thus triumphed over wind and 
wave ; has brought the ends of the earth in communion ; 
has established an interchange of blessings, pouring into 
the sterile regions of the north all the luxuries of the south ; 
diffused the light of knowledge and the charities of culti- 
vated life; and has thus bound together those scattered 
portions of the human race, between which nature seemed 
to have thrown an insurmountable barrier ! 

We one day descried some shapeless object drifting at a 
distance. At sea, everything that breaks the monotony of 
the surrounding expanse attracts attention. It proved to 
be the mast of a ship that must have been completely 
wrecked ; for there were the remains of handkerchiefs, by 
which some of the crew had fastened themselves to this 
spar, to prevent their being washed off by the waves. 
There was no trace by which the name of the ship could 
be ascertained. The wreck had evidently drifted about for 
many months ; clusters of shell-fish had fastened about it, 
and long sea-weed flaunted at its sides. But where, 
thought I, is the crew ? Their struggle has long been 
over ; — they have gone down amidst the roar of the 
tempest ; — their bones lie whitening in the caverns of the 
deep. Silence, — oblivion, — like the waves, have closed 
over them ; and no one can tell the story of their end. 

What sighs have been wafted after that ship ! what 
prayers offered up at the deserted fireside of home ! How 
often has the mistress, the wife, and the mother, pored over 
the daily news, to catch some casual intelligence of this ro- 
ver of the deep ! How has expectation darkened into 



266 ORTHOPHONY. 

anxiety — anxiety into dread — and dread into despair ! 
Alas ! not one memento shall ever return for love to cher- 
ish. All that shall ever be known is, that she sailed from 
her port, " and was never heard of more." 

II. Death of Morris. — Scott. 

(Vivid Narrative, exemplifying, after the introductory sentence, Sympa- 
thetic Horror, then successively, Terror, Scorn, Revenge, Horror, and 
Awe.) 

It was under the burning influence of revenge that the 
wife of Macgregor commanded that the hostage, exchanged 
for her husband's safety, should be brought into her pres- 
ence. I believe her sons had kept this unfortunate wretch 
out of her sight, for fear of the consequences; but if it 
was so, their humane precaution only postponed his fate. 
They dragged forward, at her summons, a wretch, already 
half-dead with terror, in whose agonized features I recog- 
nized, to my horror and astonishment, my old acquaintance 
Morris. 

He fell prostrate before the female chief with an effort 
to clasp her knees, from which she drew back, as if his 
touch had been pollution, so that all he could do in token of 
the extremity of his humiliation, was to kiss the hem of 
her plaid. I never heard entreaties for life poured forth 
with such agony of spirit. The ecstasy of fear was such, 
that, instead of paralyzing his tongue, as on ordinary occa- 
sions, it even rendered him eloquent ; and, with cheeks as 
pale as ashes, hands compressed in agony, eyes that seemed 
to be taking their last look of all mortal objects, he pro- 
tested, with the deepest oaths, his total ignorance of any de- 
sign on the life of Rob Roy, whom he swore he loved and 
honored as his own soul. — In the inconsistency of his ter- 
ror, he said he was but the agent of others, and he mut- 
tered the name of Rashleigh. — He prayed but for life — 
for life he would give all he had in the world ; — it was bu? 
life he asked — life, if it were to be prolonged under tor- 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 267 

tures and privations ; — he asked only breath, though it 
should be drawn in the damps of the lowest caverns of their 
hills. 

It is impossible to describe the scorn, the loathing, and 
contempt, with which the wife of Macgregor regarded this 
wretched petitioner for the poor boon of existence. 

" I could have bid you live," she said, " had life been to 
you the same weary and wasting burden that it is to me — 
that it is to every noble and generous mind. — But you — 
wretch ! you could creep through the world unaffected by 
its various disgraces, its ineffable miseries, its constantly 
accumulating masses of crime and sorrow, — you could live 
and enjoy yourself, while the noble-minded are betrayed, 
— while nameless and birthless villains tread on the neck 
of the brave and long-descended, — you could enjoy your- 
self, like a butcher's dog in the shambles, battening on 
garbage, while the slaughter of the brave went on around 
you! This enjoyment you shall not live to partake of; 
you shall die, base dog, and that before yon cloud has 
passed over the sun." 

She gave a brief command, in Gaelic, to her attendants, 
two of whom seized upon the prostrate suppliant, and hur- 
ried him to the brink of a cliff which overhung the flood. 
He set up the most piercing and dreadful cries that fear 
ever uttered — I may well term them dreadful ; for they 
haunted my sleep for years afterwards. As the murderers, 
or executioners, call them as you will, dragged him along, 
he recognized me even in that moment of horror, and ex- 
claimed, in the last articulate words I ever heard him utter, 
u O, Mr. Osbaldistone, save me! — save me ! " 

I was so much moved by this horrid spectacle, that, al- 
though in momentary expectation of sharing his fate, I did 
attempt to speak in his behalf, but, as might have been ex- 
pected, my interference was sternly disregarded. The vic- 
tim was held fast by some, while others, binding a large 
heavy stone in a plaid, tied it round his neck, and others 



268 ORTHOPHONY. 

again eagerly stripped him of some part of his dress. 
Half naked, and thus manacled, they hurried him into the 
lake, there about twelve feet deep, drowning his last death- 
shriek with a loud halloo of vindictive triumph, over which, 
however, the yell of mortal agony was distinctly heard. 
The heavy burden splashed in the dark-blue waters of the 
lake ; and the Highlanders, with their pole-axes and 
swords, watched an instant, to guard, lest, extricating him- 
self from the load to which he was attached, he might have 
struggled to regain the shore. But the knot had been 
securely bound ; the victim sunk without effort ; the waters, 
which his fall had disturbed, settled calmly over him ; and 
the unit of that life for which he had pleaded so strongly, 
was forever withdrawn from the sum of human existence. 

III. Eulogy of President Garfield. — Blaine. 

His terrible fate was upon him in an instant. One mo- 
ment he stood erect, strong, confident in the years stretch- 
ing peacefully out before him. The next he lay wounded, 
bleeding, helpless, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to 
silence and the grave. 

Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For 
no cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness and wickedness, 
by the red hand of murder, he was thrust from the full tide 
of this world's interest, from its hopes, its aspirations, its 
victories, into the visible presence of Death — and he did 
not quail. Not alone for the one short moment in which, 
stunned and dazed he could give up life, hardly aware of 
its relinquishment, but through days of deadly languor, 
through weeks of agony that was not less agony because 
silently borne, with clear sight and calm courage, he looked 
into his open grave. What blight and ruin met his an- 
guished eyes, whose lips may tell — what brilliant broken 
plans, what baffled high ambitions, what sundering of strong 
warm manhood's friendships, what bitter rending of sweet 
household ties ! Behind him a proud, expectant Nation, a 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 269 

great host of sustaining friends, a cherished and happy- 
mother, wearing the full, rich honors of her early toil and 
tears ; the wife of his youth, whose whole life lay in his ; 
the little boys not yet emerged from childhood's days of 
frolic ; the fair, young daughter, the sturdy sons just spring- 
ing into closest companionship, claiming every day and 
every day rewarding a father's love and care, and in his 
heart the eager rejoicing power to meet all demand! Be- 
fore him desolation and great darkness ! And his soul was 
not shaken. His countrymen were thrilled with instant, 
profound, and universal sympathy. Masterful in his mortal 
weakness, he became the centre of a Nation's love, en- 
shrined in the prayers of a world ; but all the love and all 
the sympathy could not share with him his suffering. He 
trod the wine-press alone. With unfaltering front he faced 
death. With unfailing tenderness he took leave of life. 
Above the demoniac hiss of the assassin's bullet he heard 
the voice of God. With simple resignation he bowed to 
the Divine decree. 

As the end drew near his early craving for the sea re- 
turned. The stately mansion of power had been to him 
the wearisome hospital of pain, and he begged to be taken 
from its prison walls, from its oppressive, stifling air, from 
its homelessness and its hopelessness. Gently, silently, the 
love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to the longed- 
for healing of the sea, to live or to die as God should will, 
within sight of its heaving billows, within sound of its man- 
ifold voices. With wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to the 
cooling breeze, he looked out wistfully upon the ocean's 
changing wonders ; on its far sails whitening in the morn- 
ing light ; on its restless waves rolling shore-ward to break 
and die beneath the noonday sun ; on the red clouds of 
evening arching low to the horizon ,• on the serene and 
shining pathway of the stars. Let us think that his dying 
eyes read a mystic meaning which only the rapt and parting 
goul may know. Let us believe that in the silence of the 



270 ORTHOPHONY. 

receding world he heard the great waves breaking on a 
farther shore, and felt already upon his wasted brow the 
breath of the eternal morning. 

IV. Chatham's Rebuke of Lord Suffolk. 
(Declamatory Interrogation, Detestation, and Abhorrence.) 

Who is the man that, in addition to the disgraces and 
mischiefs of the war, has dared to authorize and associate 
to our arms the tomahawk and seal ping-knife of the savage? 
— to call into civilized alliance the wild and inhuman in- 
habitant of the woods ? — to delegate to the merciless In- 
dian the defence of disputed rights, and to wage the horrors 
of his barbarous war against our brethren ? My lords, these 
enormities cry aloud for redress and punishment. But, my 
lords, this barbarous measure has been defended, not only 
on the principles of policy and necessity, but also on those 
of morality ; " for it is perfectly allowable," says Lord Suf- 
folk, " to use all the means which God and nature have put 
into our hands." I am astonished, I am shocked, to hear 
such principles confessed ; to hear them allowed in this 
house or in this country ! 

My lords, I did not intend to encroach so much on your 
attention, but I cannot repress my indignation — I feel my- 
self impelled to speak. My lords, we are called upon as 
members of this house, as men, as Christians, to protest 
against such horrible barbarity ! — " That God and nature 
have put into our hands ! " What ideas of God and nature 
that noble lord may entertain I know not ; but I know that 
such detestable principles are equally abhorrent to religion 
and humanity. What ! to attribute the sacred sanction of 
God and nature to the massacres of the Indian scalping- 
knife ! to the cannibal savage, torturing, murdering, devour- 
ing, drinking the blood of his mangled victims ! Such 
notions shock every precept of morality, every feeling of 
humanity, every sentiment of honor. These abominable 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 271 

principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, de- 
mand the most decisive indignation. 

I call upon that right reverend, and this most learned 
bench to vindicate the religion of their God, to support the 
justice of their country. I call upon the bishops to inter- 
pose the unsullied sanctity of their lawn, — upon the judges 
to interpose the purity of their ermine, to save us from this 
pollution. I call upon the honor of your lordships to rev- 
erence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your 
own. I call upon the spirit and humanity of my country 
to vindicate the national character. I solemnly call upon 
your lordships, and upon every order of men in the state, to 
stamp upon this infamous procedure the indelible stigma of 
the public abhorrence. More particularly, I call upon the 
holy prelates of our religion to do away with this iniquity ; 
let them perform a lustration to purify the country from 
this deep and deadly sin. 

V. Extract from Patrick Henry's Speech in favor of the War 
of Independence. 

(Declamatory Expostulation, Courage, Confidence, Resolute Defiance, 
Rousing Appeal, Deep Determination.) 

They tell us, sir, that we are weak — unable to cope 
with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be 
stronger ? Will it be the next week, or the next year ? 
Will it be when we are totally disarmed ; and when a Brit- 
ish guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we 
gather strength by irresolution and inaction ? Shall we ac- 
quire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on 
our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until 
our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot ? 

Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those 
means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. 
Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, 
and in such a country as that which we possess, are invinci- 
ble by any force which our enemy can send against us. 



272 ORTHOPHONY. 

Besides, sir, we shall not fight alone. There is a just God 
who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will 
raise up friends to fight our battles for us. 

The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone : it is to the 
vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no 
election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too 
late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in 
submission and slavery ! Our chains are forged. Their 
clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston ! The war 
is inevitable — and let it come ! I repeat it, sir, let it- 
come ! 

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen 
may cry peace, peace, — but there is no peace. The war 
is actually begun. The next gale that sweeps from the 
north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms ! 
Our brethren are already in the field. Why stand we here 
idle ? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they 
have ? — Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be pur- 
chased at the price of chains and slavery ? Forbid it, Al- 
mighty God ! — I know not what course others may take ; 
but as for me, — give me liberty or give me death ! 

VI. Passing Away. — J. Pierpont. 

Was it the chime of a tiny bell, 

That came so sweet to my dreaming ear, — 
Like the silvery tones of a fairy's shell, 

That he winds on the beach so mellow and clear, 
When the winds and the waves lie together asleep, 
And the moon and the fairy are watching the deep ; — 
She dispensing her silvery light, 
And he, his notes as silvery quite, 
While the boatman listens, and ships his oar, 
To catch the music that comes from the shore ? — 
Hark ! the notes, on my ear that play 
Are set to words : — as they float they say, 
•' Passing away ! Passing away ! " 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 273 

But no ; it was not a fairy's shell, 

Blown on the beach, so mellow and clear 5 
Nor was it the tongue of a silver bell, 
Striking the hour, that filled my ear, 
As I lay in my dream ; yet was it a chime 
That told of the flow of the stream of time. 
For a beautiful clock from the ceiling hung, 
And a plump little girl, for a pendulum, swung 
(As you 've sometimes seen, in a little ring 
That hangs in his cage, a canary bird swing;) 

And she held to her bosom a budding bouquet, 
And, as she enjoyed it, she seemed to say, 
" Passing away ! Passing away ! " 

Oh 1 how bright were the wheels, that told 

Of the lapse of time as they moved around slow ! 
And the hands, as they swept o'er the dial of gold, 

Seemed to point to the girl below. 
And lo ! she had changed : — in a few short hours 
Her bouquet had become a garland of flowers, 
That she held in her outstretched hands, and flung 
This way and that, as she, dancing, swung 
In the fulness of grace and womanly pride, 
That told me she soon was to be a bride ; — 
Yet then, when expecting her happiest day 
In the same sweet voice I heard her say, 
" Passing away ! passing away ! " 

While I gazed at that fair one's cheek, a shade 

Of thought, or care, stole softly over, 
Like that by a cloud in a summer's day made, 

Looking down on a field of blossoming clover. 
The rose yet lay on her cheek ; but its flush 
Had something lost of its brilliant blush ; 
And the light in her eye, and the light on the whe«U< 

That marched so calmly around and above her, 
18 



274 ORTHOPHONY. 

Was a little dimmed, — as when evening steals 

Upon noon's hot face : yet one could n't but love heii 
For she looked like a mother, whose first babe lay- 
Rocked on her breast, as she swung all day ; 
And she seemed in the same silver tone to say, 
" Passing away ! passing away ! " 

While yet I looked, what a change there came ! 

Her eye was quenched, and her cheek was wan: 
Stooping and staffed was her withered frame* 

Yet just as busily swung she on ; 
The garland beneath her had fallen to dust, 
The wheels above her were eaten with rust ; 
The hands, that over the dial swept, 
Grew crooked and tarnished, but on they kept . 
And still there came that silver tone 
From the shrivelled lips of the toothless crone, 
(Let me never forget till my dying day 
The tone or the burden of her lay ! ) 
" Passing away ! passing away ! " 

VII. — Battle of Waterloo. — Byron. 

There was a sound of revelry by night ; 

And Belgium's capital had gathered then 
Her Beauty and her Chivalry ; and bright 

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men : 

A thousand hearts beat happily ; and when 
Music arose with its voluptuous swell, 

Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again, 
And all went merry as a marriage bell ; — 
put hush ! hark ! a deep sound strikes like a rising knelL. 

Did ye not hear it ? — No ; 't was but the wind, 

Or the car rattling o'er the stony street : 
On with the dance ! let joy be unconfined ; 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 275 

No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet 
To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet — 

But, hark ! — that heavy sound breaks in once more, 
As if the clouds its echo would repeat ; 

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before ! 
Arm ! arm ! it is ! — it is ! — the cannon's opening roar. 

Ah ! then and there was hurrying to and fro, 

And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress, 
And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago 

Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness ; 

And there were sudden partings, such as press 
The -life from out young hearts, and choking sighs 

Which ne'er might be repeated : who could guess 
If ever more should meet those mutual eyes, 
Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise ? 

And there was mounting in hot haste ; the steed, 

The mustering squadron, and the clattering car, 
"Went pouring forward with impetuous speed, 

And swiftly forming in the ranks of war ; 

And the deep thunder, peal on peal, afar, 
And near, the beat of the alarming drum, 

Roused up the soldier ere the morning star ; — 
While thronged the citizens with terror dumb, 
Or whispering, with white lips — " The foe ! they come ! 
they come ! " 

And wild and high the " Cameron's gathering " rose ! 

The war-note of Lochiel, which Albyn's hills 
Have heard ; — and heard, too, have her Saxon foes : — 

How in the noon of night that pibroch thrills, 

Savage and shrill ! But with the breath which fills 
Their mountain-pipe, so fill the mountaineers 

With the fierce native daring, which instils 
The stirring memory of a thousand years ; 
And Evan's, Donald's fame rings in each clansman's ears! 



276 ORTHOPHONY. 

And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves, 

Dewy with nature's tear-drops, as they pass, 
Grieving, — if aught inanimate e'er grieves, — 
Over the unreturning brave, — alas ! 
Ere evening to be trodden like the grass 
"Which now beneath them, but above shall grow 
In its next verdure ; when this fiery mass 
Of living valor, rolling on the foe, 
And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold and low ! 

Last noon beheld them full of lusty life, 

Last eve in Beauty's circle proudly gay, 
The midnight brought the signal-sound of strife, 

The morn, the marshalling in arms, — the day 

Battle's magnificently-stern array ! 
The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which when rent 

The earth is covered thick with other clay, 
Which her own clay shall cover, — heaped and pent, 
Rider and horse, — friend, foe, — in one red burial blent ! 

VIII. Satan rallying the Fallen Angels. — Milton. 

He scarce had ceased when the superior fiend 

Was moving toward the shore ; his ponderous shield 

Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, 

Behind him cast, the broad circumference 

Hung on his shoulders, like the moon, whose orb, 

Through optic glass, the Tuscan artist views, 

At evening, from the top of Fiesole, 

Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 

Rivers, or mountains, on her spotty globe. 

His spear, to equal which the tallest pine 

Hewn on Norwegian hills to be the mast 

Of some great admiral, were but a wand, 

He walked with to support uneasy steps 

Over the burning marl : (not like those steps 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 277 

On Heaven's azure !) and the torrid clime 

Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire. 

Nathless he so endured till on the beach 

Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called 

His legions, angel forms, who lay, entranced 

Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks 

In Vallombrosa, where the Eturian shades, 

High over-arched embower ; or scattered sedge 

Afloat, when with fierce winds, Orion armed, 

Hath vexed the Red Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew 

Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, 

While with perfidious hatred they pursued 

The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld 

From the safe shore their floating carcasses 

And broken chariot wheels: so thick bestrown, 

Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood, 

Under amazement of their hideous change. 

He called so loud, that all the hollow deep 

Of hell resounded. 

" Princes ! Potentates ! 
Warriors ! the flower of heaven, once yours, now lost, 
If such astonishment as this can seize 
Eternal spirits : or have ye chosen this place, 
To rest your wearied virtue, for the ease ye find 
To slumber here, as in the vales of heaven ? 
Or in this abject posture have you sworn 
To adore the Conqueror, who now beholds 
Cherub and seraph rolling in the flood, 
With scattered arms and ensigns ; till, anon, 
His swift pursuers, from heaven's gates discern 
The advantage, and descending, tread us down 
Thus drooping ; or with linked thunderbolts 
Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf ? 
Awake ! arise ! or be forever fallen ! " 



278 ORTHOPHONY. 

IX. Hymn to Mont Blanc. — Coleridge, 

Hast thou a charm to stay the morning star 

In his steep course ? so long he seems to pause 

On thy bald, awful head, O sovran Blanc ! 

The Arve and Arveiron at thy base 

Rave ceaselessly, while thou, dread mountain form, 

Risest from forth thy silent sea of pines 

How silently ! Around thee and above 

Deep is the sky and black : transpicuous deep, — 

An ebon mass ! methinks thou piercest it 

As with a wedge ! But when I look again 

It seems thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine, 

Thy habitation from eternity. 

dread and silent form ! I gazed on thee 
Till thou, still present to my bodily eye, 

Didst vanish from my thought. Entranced in prayer, 

1 worshipped the Invisible alone, 

Yet thou, methinks, wast working on my soul. 
E'en like some deep enchanting melody, 
So sweet we know not we are listening to it. 
But I awake, and with a busier mind 
And active will, self-conscious, offer now, 
Not, as before, involuntary prayer 
And passive adoration. 

Hand and voice 
Awake, awake ! and thou, my heart, awake ! 
Green fields and icy cliffs ! all join my hymn ! 
And thou, O silent mountain, sole and bare, 
O blacker than the darkness, all the night, 
And visited all night by troops of stars, — 
Or when they climb the sky, or when they sink, — • 
Companion of the morning star, at dawn, 
Thyself earth's rosy star, and of the dawn 
Co-herald ! wake, oh ! wake, and utter praise ! 
Who sank thy sunless pillars in the earth ? 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 279 

Who filled thy countenance with rosy light? 
Who made thee father of perpetual streams ? 
And you, ye five wild torrents, fiercely glad, 
Who called you forth from night and utter death ? 
From darkness let you loose, and icy dens, 
Down those precipitous, black, jagged rocks, 
Forever shattered, and the same forever ? 
Who gave you your invulnerable life, 
Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy, 
Unceasing thunder and eternal foam ? — 

And who commanded — and the silence came, 
" Here shall the billows stiffen and have rest ? " 
Ye ice-falls ! ye that from your dizzy heights 
Adown enormous ravines steeply slope, — 
Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty noise, 
And stopped at once amidst their maddest plunge, — 
Motionless torrents ! silent cataracts ! 
Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven, 
Beneath the keen full moon ? Who bade the Sun 
Clothe you with rainbows ? Who with lovely flowers 
Of living blue spread garlands at your feet ? — 
God ! God ! the torrents like a shout of nations 
Utter : the ice-plain bursts, and answers, God ! — 
God ! sing the meadow streams with gladsome voice, 
And pine-groves with their soft and soul-like sound. 

The silent snow-mass, loosening, thunders, God ! 
Ye dreadless flowers, that fringe the eternal frost ! 
Ye wild goats bounding by the eagle's nest ! 
Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain blast ! 
Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds ! 
Ye signs and wonders of the elements, 
Utter forth God ! and fill the hills with praise I 
And thou, O silent form, alone and bare, — 
Whom as I lift again my head, bowed low 
In silent adoration, I again behold, 
And to thy summit upward from thy base 



280 ORTHOPHONY. 

Sweep slowly, with dim eyes suffused with tears, — 
Awake thou mountain form ! Rise like a cloud, 
Rise, like a cloud of incense, from the earth ! 
Thou kingly spirit throned among the hills, 
Thou dread Ambassador from earth to heaven, 
Great Hierarch, tell thou the silent sky, 
And tell the stars, and tell the rising sun, 
Earth with her thousand voices calls on God. 

X. Rhyme op the Duchess May. — E. B. Browning. 

'T was a duke's fair orphan-girl, and her uncled ward, th© 

earl 
Who betrothed her, twelve years old, for the sake of dowry 

gold, 

To his son Lord Leigh, the churl. 

But what time she had made good all her years of woman- 
hood, — 

Unto both those lords of Leigh, spake she outright sov- 
ranly, 

" My will runneth as my blood. 

"And while this same blood makes red this same right 

hand's veins," she said, — 
" 'T is my will, as lady free, not to wed a lord of Leigh, 
But Sir Guy of Linteged." 

The old earl he smiled smooth, then he sighed for wilfal 

youth, — 
" Good my niece, that hand withal, looketh somewhat soft 

and small, 

For so large a will, in sooth." 

She, too, smiled by that same sign, — but her smile was 
cold and fine,— 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 251 

u Little hand clasps muckle gold ; or it were not worth the 
hold 

Of thy son, good uncle mine ! " 

Then the young lord jerked his breath, and sware thickly 

in his teeth, — 
" He would wed his own betrothed, an she loved him an 

she loathed, 

Let the life come or the death." 

Up she rose with scornful eyes, as her father's child might 

rise, — 
" Thy hound's blood, my lord of Leigh, stains thy knightly 

heel," quoth she, 

" Though he moans not where he lies. 

"But a woman's will dies hard, in the hall or on the 

sward ! — 
" By that grave, my lords, which made me, orphaned girl 

and dowered lady, 

I deny you wife and ward." 

Unto each she bowed her Lead, and swept past with lofty 

tread, — 
Ere the midnight-bell had ceased, in the chapel had the 

priest 

Blessed her, bride of Linteged. 

Fast and fain the bridal train, along the night-storm rode 

amain : — 
Wild the steeds of lord and serf, struck their hoofs out on 

the turf, 

In the pauses of the rain. 

Fast and fain, the kinsmen *s train, along the storm pursued 
amain — 



282 ORTHOPHONY. 

Steed on steed-track, dashing off — thickening, doubling 
hoof on hoof, 

In the pauses of the rain. 

And the bridegroom led the flight, on his red-roan steed of 

might, — 
And the bride lay on his arm, still, as if she feared no 

harm, 

Smiling out into the night. 

" Dost thou fear ? " he said at last; — " Nay ! " she an- 
swered him in haste, — 

" Not such death as we could find — only life with one be- 
hind — 

Ride on fast as fear — ride fast ! " 

Up the mountain wheeled the steed — girth to ground, and 
fetlocks spread, — » 

Headlong bounds and rocking flanks, down he staggered — 
down the banks, 

To the towers of Linteged. 

High and low the serfs looked out, red the flambeaus tossed 

about, — 
In the courtyard rose the cry, — "Live the Duchess and Sir 

Guy!" 

But she never heard them shout. 

On the steed she dropt her cheek, kissed his mane and kissed 

his neck, — 
"I had happier died by thee, than lived on a Lady 

Leigh," 

Were the words which she did speak. 

But a three months' joyaunce lay 'twixt that moment and 
to-day, — 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 283 

When five hundred archers tall, stand beside the castle wall, 
To recapture Duchess May. 

And the castle standeth black, with the red sun at its 

back, — 
And a fortnight's siege is done — and, except the Duchess, 

none 

Can misdoubt the coming wrack. 

Then the captain, young Lord Leigh, with his eye so gray 

of blee, — 
And thin lips, that scarcely sheath the cold white gnashing 

of his teeth, 

Gnashed in smiling, absently, — 

Cries aloud — " So goes the day, bridegroom fair of Duch- 
ess May ! — 

Look thy last upon that sun. If thou seest to-morrow's 
one, 

'T will be through a foot of clay. 

" Ha, fair bride ! Dost hear no sound, save that moaning 

of the hound ? — 
Thou and I have parted troth, — yet I keep my vengeance 

oath, 

And the other may come round. 



"Peck on blindly, netted dove ! — If a wife's name thee be- 
hove, — 

Thou shalt wear the same to-morrow, ere the grave has hid 
the sorrow 

Of thy last ill-mated love. 

w O'er his fixed and silent mouth, thou and I will call back 
troth, — 



284 ORTHOPHONY. 

He shall altar be and priest, — and he will not cry at 
least 

* I forbid you — I am loath ! ' 

"I will wring thy fingers pale, in the gauntlet of my 

mail, — 
1 Little hand and muckle gold ' close shall lie within my 

hold, 

As the sword did to prevail." 

Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang 

west, — 
Oh, and laughed the Duchess May, and her soul did put 

away 

All his boasting, for a jest. 

In her chamber did she sit, laughing low to think of 

it,— 
" Tower is strong and will is free — thou canst boast, my 

Lord of Leigh, — 

But thou boastest little wit." 

In her tire-glass gazed she, and she blushed right wom- 
anly,— 

She blushed half from her disdain — half, her beauty was 
so plain, 

— " Oath for oath, my Lord of Leigh ! " 

Straight she called her maidens in, — " Since ye gave me 

blame herein, — 
That a bridal such as mine should lack gauds to make it 

fine, 

Come and shrive me from that sin. 

u It is three months gone to-day, since I gave my hand 
away. — 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 285 

'Bring the gold and bring the gem, we will keep bride state 
in them, 

While we keep the foe at bay. 

" On your arms I loose my hair, — comb it smooth and 

crown it fair, — 
I would look in purple pall, from this lattice down the wall, 
And throw scorn to one that's there ! " 



On the tower the castle's lord leant in silence on his sword, 
With an anguish in his breast. 

With a spirit-laden weight, did he lean down passionate, — 
They have almost sapped the wall, — they will enter there 
withal, 

With no knocking at the gate. 

Then the sword he leant upon, shivered — snapped upon 

the stone, — 
" Sword," he thought, with inward laugh, " ill thou servest 

for a staff, 

When thy nobler use is done ! 

" Sword, thy nobler use is done ! — tower is lost, and shame 

begun ; — 
If we met them in the breach, hilt to hilt or speech to 

speech, 

We should die there, each for one. 

" If we met them at the wall, we should singly, vainly fall, 
Bat if /die here alone, — then I die, who am but one, 
And die nobly for them all. 

* Five true friends lie for my sake, — in the moat and in 
the brake, — 



286 ORTHOPHONY. 

Thirteen warriors lie at rest, with a black wound in the 
breast, 

And none of these will wake. 

" And no more of this shall be ! heart-blood weighs too 

heavily — 
And I could not sleep in grave, with the faithful and the 

brave 

Heaped around and over me. 

" Since young Clare a mother hath, and young Ralph a 

plighted faith, — 
Since my pale young sister's cheeks blush like rose when 

Ronald speaks, 
Though never a word she saith, — 

"These shall never die for me — life-blood falls too 

heavily : — 
And if /die here apart, — o'er my dead and silent heart 
They shall pass out safe and free. 

"When the foe hath heard it said, — ' Death holds Guy 

of Linteged,' — 
That new corse new peace shall bring ; and a blessed, 

blessed thing, 

Shall the stone be at his head. 

" Then my friends shall pass out free, and shall bear my 

memory, — 
Then my foes shall sleek their pride, soothing fair my 

widowed bride, 

Whose sole sin was love of me. 



" Ah, sweet May — ah, sweetest grief! — once I vowed the* 
my belief, 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 287 

That thy name expressed thy sweetness, — May of poets, 
in completeness ! 

Now my May-day seemeth brief." 

All these silent thoughts did swim o'er his eyes grown 

strange and dim, — 
Till his true men in the place wished they stood there 

face to face 

With the foe instead of him. 

" One last oath, my friends, that wear faithful hearts to do 

and dare ! 
Tower must fall, and bride be lost! — swear me service 

worth the cost ! " — 

Bold they stood around to swear. 

" Each man clasp my hand, and swear, by the deed we 

failed in there, — 
Not for vengeance, not for right, will ye strike one blow 

to-night ! " — 

Pale they stood around to swear. 

" One last boon young Ralph and Clare ! faithful hearts 

to do and dare ! 
Bring that steed up from his stall, which she kissed before 

you all, — 

Guide him up the turret-stair. 

i Ye shall harness him aright, and lead upward to this 

height ! — 
Once in love and twice in war, hath he borne me strong 

and far, — 

He shall bear me far to-night." 

Then his men looked to and fro, when they heard him 
speaking so, — 



288 ORTHOPHONY. 

" 'Las ! the noble heart," they thought, — " he in sooth is 
grief -distraught. — 

Would we stood here with the foe ! " 

But a fire flashed from his eye, 'twixt their thought and 

their reply, — 
" Have ye so much time to waste ! We who ride here 

must ride fast, 

As we wish our foes to fly." 

They have fetched the steed with care, in the harness he 

did wear, — 
Past the court and through the doors, across the rushes of 

the floors ; 

But they goad him up the stair. 

' rhen from out her bower-chambere, did the Duchess May 

repair, — 
u Tell me now what is your need," said the lady, " of this 

steed, 

That ye goad him up the stair ? " 

Calm she stood ! unbodkined through, fell her dark hair to 

her shoe, — 
And the smile upon her face, ere she left the tiring-glass 
Had not time enough to go. 

" Qet thee back, sweet Duchess May ! hope is gone like 

yesterday, — 
One half-hour completes the breach ; and thy lord grows 
wild of speech. — 

Get thee in, sweet lady, and pray. 

* 
u In the east tower, high'st of all, — loud he cries for steed 
from stall, — 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 289 

1 He would ride as far,' quoth he, 'as for love and vic- 
tory, 

Though he rides the castle-wall.' 

"And we fetch the steed from stall, up where never a hoof 

did fall. — 
Wifely prayer meets deathly need ! may the sweet Heavens 

hear thee plead, 

If he rides the castle- wall." 

Low she dropt her head, and lower, till her hair coiled on 

the floor, — 
And tear after tear you heard, fall distinct as any word 
Which you might be listening for. 



She stood up in bitter case, with a pale yet steady face, — 
Like a statue thunderstruck, which, though quivering, 
seems to look 

Right against the thunder-place. 

And her foot trod in, with pride, her own tears i' the stone 

beside, — 
" Go to, faithful friends, go to ! Judge no more what ladies 

do, — . 

No, nor how their lords may ride ! " 

Then the good steed's rein she took, and his neck did kiss 

and stroke : — 
Soft he neighed to answer her ; and then followed up the 

stair, 

For the love of her sweet look. 

Oh, and steeply, steeply wound up the narrow stairs 
around, — 
19 



290 ORTHOPHONY. 

Oh, and closely, closely speeding, step by step beside her 
treading, 

Did he follow, meek as hound. 

On the east tower, high'st of all, — there, where never a 

hoof did fall, — 
Out they swept, a vision steady, — noble steed and lovely 

lady, 

Calm as if in bower or stall ! 

Down she knelt at her lord's knee, and she looked up 

silently, — 
And he kissed her twice and thrice, for that look within 

her eyes, 

Which he could not bear to see. 

Quoth he, " Get thee from this strife, — and the sweet 

saints bless thy life ! — 
In this hour, I stand in need of my noble red-roan steed — 
But not of my noble wife." 

Quoth she, " Meekly have I done all thy biddings under 

sun: — 
But by all my womanhood, — which is proved so true and 

good, 

I will never do this one. 

" Now by womanhood's decree, and by wifehood's ver- 
ity,— 
In this hour if thou hast need of thy noble red-roan steed, 
Thou hast also need of me. 

" By this golden ring ye see on this lifted hand pardie, — 
If this hour, on castle-wall, can be room for steed from 
stall, 

Shall be also room for me. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 291 

•• So the sweet saints with me be " (did she utter sol- 
emnly), — 
" If a man, this eventide, on the castle-wall will ride, 
He shall ride the same with me." 

Oh, he sprang up in the selle, and he laughed out bitter- 
well, — 

" Wouldst thou ride among the leaves, as we used on other 
eves, 

To hear chime the vesper bell ? " 

She clang closer to his knee — " Aye, beneath the cypress- 
tree ! — 

Mock me not ; for otherwhere, than along the green-wood 
fair, 

Have I ridden fast with thee ! 

" Fast I rode, with new-made vows, from my angry kins- 
man's house ! 

What ! and would you men should reck, that I dared more 
for love's sake, 

As a bride than as a spouse ? 

" What, and would you it should fall, as a proverb, before 

all,— 
That a bride may keep your side, while through castle-gate 

you ride, 

Yet eschew the castle-wall ? " 

Ho ! the breach yawns into ruin, and roars up against her 

suing, — 
With the inarticulate din, and the dreadful falling in — 
Shrieks of doing and undoing ! 

Twice he wrung her hands in twain ; but the small hands 
closed again, — 



292 ORTHOPHONY. 

Back he reined the steed — back, back f but she trailed 
along the track, 

With a frantic clasp and strain ! 

Evermore the foemen pour through the crash of window 

and door, — 
And the shouts of Leigh and Leigh, and the shrieks of "kill ! " 

and "flee!" 

Strike up clear the general roar. 

Thrice he wrung her hands in twain, — but they closed and 

clung again, — 
Wild she clung, as one, withstood, clasps a Christ upon the 

rood, 

In a spasm of deathly pain. 

She clung wild and she clung mute, — with her shuddering 

lips half -shut, — 
Her head fallen as in swound, — hair and knee swept on 

the ground, -— 

She clung wild to stirrup and foot. 

Back he reined his steed, back-thrown on the slippery 

coping stone, — 
Back the iron hoofs did grind, on the battlement behind, 
Whence a hundred feet went down. 

And his heel did press and goad on the quivering flank be- 
strode, 

" Friends, and brothers ! save my wife ! — Pardon, sweet, 
in change for life, — 

But I ride alone to God ! " 

Straight as if the Holy name did upbreathe her as a 
flame, — 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 293 

She upsprang, she rose upright ! in his selle she sat m 
sight ; 

By her love she overcame. 

And her head was on his breast, where she smiled as one at 

rest, — 
" Ring," she cried, " O vesper bell, in the beech-wood's old 

chapelle ! 

But the passing bell rings best." 

They have caught out at the rein, which Sir Guy threw 

loose — in vain, — 
For the horse in stark despair, with his front hoofs poised 

in air, 

On the last verge, rears amain. 

And he hangs, he rocks between — and his nostrils cardie 

in,— 
And he shivers head and hoof, and the flakes of foam fall 

off; 

And his face grows fierce and thin ! 

And a look of human woe, from his staring eyes did go, — 
And a sharp cry uttered he in a foretold agony 
Of the headlong death below, — 

And, " Ring, ring, — thou passing bell," still she cried, 

" i' the old chapelle ! " — 
Then back-toppling, crashing back — a dead weight flung 

out to wrack, 

Horse and riders overfell ! 



Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang 
west, — 



294 ORTHOPHONY. 

And I read this ancient Rhyme in the kirkyard while the 
chime 

Slowly tolled for one at rest. 



And beneath a willow tree, I a little grave did see, — 
Where was graved, — " Here undented, 
Lieth Maud, a three-year child, 

Eighteen hundred forty-three." 

Then, O Spirits — did I say — ye who rode so fast that 

day,— 
Did star-wheels and angel-wings, with their holy winnow- 

ings, 

Keep beside you all the way ? 

Though in passion ye would dash, with a blind and heavy 

crash, 
Up against the thick-bossed shield of God's judgment in the 

field, — 

Though your heart and brain were rash, — 

Now your will is all unwilled — now your pulses are aP 

stilled, — 
Now ye lie as meek and mild (whereso laid) as Maud tfr* 

child, 

Whose small grave to-day was filled. 



In your patience ye are strong ; cold and heat ye take no* 

wrong : — 
When the trumpet of the angel blows eternity's evangel, 
Time will seem to you not long. 

Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang 
west, 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 295 

And I said in underbreath, — all our lif* is mixed with 
death, — 

And who knoweth which is best ? 

Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang 

west, — 
And I smiled to think God's greatness flowed around our 

incompleteness, — 

Round our restlessness, His rest. 



XL The Uses of Knowledge. — Alison. 

The first end to which all wisdom or knowledge ought to 
be employed, is to illustrate the wisdom or goodness of the 
Father of Nature. Every science that is cultivated by 
men, leads naturally to religious thought, from the study of 
the plant that grows beneath our feet, to that of the Host 
of Heaven above us, who perform their stated revolutions 
in majestic silence, amid the expanse of infinity. When, 
in the youth of Moses, " the Lord appeared to him in Ho- 
reb," a voice was heard, saying, " Draw nigh hither, and 
put off thy shoes from off thy feet ; for the place where 
thou standest is holy ground." It is with such a reverential 
awe that every great or elevated mind will approach to the 
study of nature, and with such feelings of adoration and 
gratitude, that he will receive the illumination that gradually 
opens upon his soul. 

It is not the lifeless mass of matter, he will then feel, that 
he is examining, — it is the mighty machine of Eternal 
Wisdom : the workmanship of Him, " in whom everything 
lives, and moves, and has its being." Under an aspect of 
this kind, it is impossible to pursue knowledge without 
mingling with it the most elevated sentiments of devotion ; 
— it is impossible to perceive the laws of nature without 
perceiving, at the same time, the presence and the Provi- 
dence of the Lawgiver ; — and thus it is, that, in every age^ 



296 ORTHOPHONY. 

the evidences of religion have advanced with the progress 
of true philosophy ; and that science, in erecting a monu- 
ment to herself, has, at the same time, erected an altar to 
the Deity. 

The second great end to which all knowledge ought to be 
employed, is the welfare of humanity. Every science is 
the foundation of some art beneficial to men ; and while 
the study of it leads us to see the beneficence of the laws 
of nature, it calls upon us also to follow the great end of 
the Father of Nature in their employment and application. 
I need not say what a field is thus opened to the benevolence 
of knowledge ; I need not tell you that in every depart- 
ment of learning there is good to be done to mankind ; I 
need not remind you that the age in which we live has 
given us the noblest examples of this kind, and that science 
now finds its highest glory in improving the condition, or in 
allaying the miseries of humanity. But there is one thing 
of which it is proper ever to remind you, because the mod- 
esty of knowledge often leads us to forget it, — and that is 
that the power of scientific benevolence is far greater than 
that of all others, to the welfare of society. 

The benevolence of the great, or the opulent, however 
eminent it may be, perishes with themselves. The benevo- 
lence even of sovereigns is limited to the narrow boundary 
of human life; and, not unfrequently, is succeeded by dif- 
ferent and discordant counsels. But the benevolence of 
knowledge is of a kind as extensive as the race of man, 
and as permanent as the existence of society. He, in what- 
ever situation he may be, who, in the study of science, has 
discovered a new means of alleviating pain, or of remedy- 
ing disease ; who has described a wiser method of prevent- 
ing poverty, or of shielding misfortune ; who has suggested 
additional means of increasing or improving the beneficent 
productions of nature, has left a memorial of himself 
which can never be forgotten ; which will communicate 
happm^ss to ages yet unborn ; and which, in the emphatic 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 297 

language of Scripture, renders him a " fellow-worker " with 
God himself, in the improvement of his Creation. 

XII. The Last Hours of Sir Walter Scott. — Lock hart. 

On the morning of Sunday, the 15th of July, he was 
again taken out into the little pleasaunce, and got as far as 
his favorite terrace-walk between the garden and the river, 
from which he seemed to survey the valley and the hills 
with much satisfaction. On reentering the house he desired 
me to read to him from the New Testament, and after that 
he again called for a little of Crabbe ; but whatever I se- 
lected from that poet seemed to be listened to as if it made 
part of some new volume published while he was in Italy. 
He attended with this sense of novelty even to the tale of 
Phoebe Dawson, which, not many months before, he could 
have repeated every line of, and which I chose for one of 
these readings, because, as is known to every one, it had 
formed the last solace of Mr. Fox's deathbed. On the con- 
trary, his recollection of whatever I read from the Bible 
appeared to be lively ; and in the afternoon when we made 
his grandson, a child of six years, repeat some of Dr. 
Watts's hymns by his chair, he seemed also to remember 
them perfectly. That evening he heard the church service, 
and when I was about to close the book, said, " Why do 
you omit the office for the Visitation of the Sick ? " which 
I added accordingly. 

On Monday he remained in bed and seemed extremely 
feeble; but after breakfast on Tuesday, the 17th, he 
appeared revived somewhat, and was again wheeled about 
on the turf. Presently he fell asleep in his chair, and 
after dozing for perhaps half an hour, started awake, and 
shaking the plaids we had put about him from off his 
shoulders, said, " This is sad idleness ; I shall forget what 
I have been thinking of, if I don't set it down now. Take 
me into my own room, and fetch the keys of my desk." 
He repeated this so earnestly that we could not refuse ; his 



298 ORTHOPHONY. 

daughters went into his study, opened his writing-desk, and 
laid paper and pens in the usual order, and I then moved 
him through the hall and into the spot where he had always 
been accustomed to work. When the chair was placed at 
the desk, and he found himself in the old position, he 
smiled and thanked us, and said, " Now give me my pen 
and leave me for a little to myself." Sophia put the pen 
into his hand, and he endeavored to close his fingers upon 
it, but they refused their office — it dropped on the paper. 
He sank back among his pillows, silent tears rolliDg down 
his cheeks ; but composing himself by and by, motioned 
to me to wheel him out of doors again. Laidlaw met us at 
the porch, and took his turn of the chair. Sir Walter, 
after a little while, again dropt into slumber. When he 
was awaking, Laidlaw said to me, " Sir Walter has had a 
little repose." " No, Willie," said he — " no repose for 
Sir Walter but in the grave." The tears again rushed from 
his eyes. " Friends," said he, " don't let me expose my- 
self — get me to bed — that 's the only place." 

With this scene ended our glimpse of daylight. Sir 
Walter never, I think, left his room afterwards, and hardly 
his bed, except an hour or two in the middle of the day ; 
and after another week he was unable even for this. 

As I was dressing, on the morning of Monday, the 17th 
of September, Nicolson came into my room and told me 
that his master had awoke in a state of composure and 
consciousness, and wished to see me immediately. I found 
him entirely himself, though in the last extreme of feeble- 
ness. His eye was clear and calm — every trace of the 
wild fire of delirium extinguished. " Lockhart," he said, 
" I may have but a minute to speak to you. My dear, be 
a good man — be virtuous — be religious — be a good man. 
Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come to 
lie here." — He paused and I said, " Shall I send for 
Sophia and Anne ? " — " No," said he, " don't disturb them. 
Poor souls ! I know they were up all night — God bless 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 299 

you all." — With this he sunk iuto a very tranquil sleep, 
and, indeed, he scarcely afterwards gave any sign of con- 
sciousness, except for an instant on the arrival of his sons. 
They, on learning that the scene was about to close, ob- 
tained a new leave of absence from their posts, and both 
reached Abbotsford on the 19th. About half-past one 
p.m., on the 21st of September, Sir Walter breathed his 
last, in the presence of all his children. It was a beauti- 
ful day — so warm that every window was wide open — 
and so perfectly still that the sound of all others most de- 
licious to the ear, the gentle ripple of the Tweed over its 
pebbles, was distinctly audible as we knelt round the bed, 
and his eldest son kissed and closed his eyes. 

XIII. Specimen of the Eloquence of John Adams. — Webster. 

The war must go on. We must fight it through. And 
if the war must go on, why put off longer the Declaration 
of Independence ? That measure will strengthen us. It 
will give us character abroad. 

Why then, sir, do we not, as soon as possible, change this 
from a civil to a national war ? And since we must fight it 
through, why not put ourselves in a state to enjoy all the 
benefits of victory, if we gain the victory ? 

If we fail, it can be no worse for us. But we shall not 
fail. The cause will raise up armies. The cause will create 
navies. The people, the people, if we are true to them, 
will carry us, and will carry themselves, gloriously, through 
this struggle. 

I care not how fickle other people have been found. I 
know the people of these colonies ; and I know that resist- 
ance to British aggression is deep and settled in their 
hearts and cannot be eradicated. Every colony, indeed, has 
expressed its willingness to follow, if we but take the lead. 
Sir, the declaration will inspire the people with increased 
courage. Instead of a long and bloody war for restoration 
of privileges, for redress of grievances, for chartered im- 



£/00 ORTHOPHONY. 

munities, held under a British king, set before them the glo 
rious object of entire independence, and it will breathe into 
them anew the breath of life. 

Read this declaration at the head of the army ; every 
sword will be drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow 
uttered to maintain it or to perish on the bed of honor. 
Publish it from the pulpit ; religion will approve it, and the 
love of religious liberty will cling round it, resolved to stand 
with it or fall with it. Send it to the public halls ; pro- 
claim it there ; let them hear it who heard the first roar of 
the enemy's cannon ; let them see it who saw their brothers 
and their sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill, and in the 
streets of Lexington and Concord, and the very walls will 
cry out in its support. 

Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs, but I see, 
I see clearly through this day's business. You and I, in- 
deed, may rue it. We may not live to the time when this 
declaration shall be made good. We may die ; die colonists ; 
die slaves ; die, it may be, ignominiously and on the scaf- 
fold. Be it so. Be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven 
that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, 
the victim shall be ready at the appointed hour of sacrifice, 
come when that hour may. But while I do live, let me 
have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that 
a free country. 

But whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured, 
that this declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and 
\t may cost blood ; but it will stand, and it will richly com- 
pensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present, 
I see the brightness of the future, as the sun in heaven. 
We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we 
are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will 
celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, 
and illuminations. On its annual return they will shed 
tears, copious, gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, 
not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude, 
and of joy. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 301 

Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judg- 
ment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. 
All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in 
this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it ; and I leave 
off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for 
the declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the 
blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment : independ- 
ence wow; and INDEPENDENCE FOREVER. 

XIV. Slavery opposed to Nature. — Brougham. 
I trust at length the time is come when Parliament will 
no longer bear to be told that slave-owners are the best law- 
givers on slavery; no longer allow an appeal from the 
British public to such communities as those in which the 
Smiths and the Grimsdalls are persecuted to death for 
teaching the Gospel to the negroes, and the Mosses held in 
affectionate respect for torture and murder ; no longer suf- 
fer our voices to roll across the Atlantic in empty warnings 
and fruitless orders. Tell me not of rights ; talk not of 
the property of the planter in his slaves. I deny the right ; 
I acknowledge not the property. The principles, the feel- 
ings of our common nature, rise in rebellion against it. Be 
the appeal made to the understanding, or to the heart, the 
sentence is the same that rejects it. In vain you tell me of 
the laws that sanction such a crime ! There is a law above 
all the enactments of human codes, — the same throughout 
the world — the same in all times, — such as it was before 
the daring genius of Columbus pierced the night of ages, 
and opened to one world the sources of power, wealth, and 
knowledge, to another, all unutterable woes, — such as it is 
this day. It is the law written by the finger of God on the 
heart of man ; and by that law, unchangeable and eternal, 
while men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and abhor 
blood, they will reject with indignation the wild and guilty 
fantasy, that man can hold property in man ! In vain you 
appeal to treaties, to covenants between nations ! the cove- 



302 ORTHOPHONY. 

nants of the Almighty, whether the Old covenant or the 
New, denounces such unholy pretensions. To those laws 
did they of old refer who maintained the African trade. 
Such treaties did they cite, and not untruly ; for by one 
shameful compact you bartered the glories of Blenheim for 
the traffic in blood. Yet despite of law and treaty, that in- 
fernal traffic is now destroyed, and its votaries put to death 
like other pirates. How came this change to pass ? Not, 
assuredly, by Parliament leading the way ; but the country 
at length awoke ; the indignation of the people was kindled ; 
it descended in thunder and smote the traffic, and scattered 
the guilty profits to the wind. Now, then, let the planters 
beware — let their assemblies beware — let the government 
at home beware — let the Parliament beware ! The same 
country is once more awake — awake to the condition of 
negro slavery ; the same indignation kindles in the bosom 
of the same people : the same cloud is gathering that anni- 
hilated the slave trade ; and if it shall descend again, they 
on whom its crash may fall will not be destroyed before I 
have warned them ; but I pray that their destruction may 
turn away from us the more terrible judgments of God. 



^H 



■i 



imMamrn 







_JH ■Hi 

Mm 

m&B&m 



■■■■•-■'■■.■■ 














■WgC^vT 


^W^K? 


*, 


jfl 
















■ 

■ 




^B 












■ 

m 


1 




































■H 


■ *# 









■ * 






■ 








jf ' W -*T I 






IBIaSI 




h 



H 



